VASSALBORO — There wasn’t anything new or surprising about who won individual titles at the Class B high school golf championships Friday.
The team champion, however, was a different story.
Freeport’s Eli Spaulding and Leavitt’s Jade Haylock earned their third straight championships at Natanis Golf Course, with Spaulding shooting a 2-under 70 to wrap up his Falcons career and Haylock, a junior, carding a 1-over 73 to win the girls’ title.
Spaulding edged Gardiner’s Jack Quinn by one stroke to win the title last year. This time he held off Quinn, again the second-place finisher, by three shots.
“It feels really good,” Spaulding said. “I definitely felt the pressure a little more. Obviously, a chance to get a three-peat, that doesn’t happen too many times. I really wanted to win, and I knew I could.”
Haylock’s 73 on the Tomahawk course came after she shot 5-under 67 on the Arrowhead side at the KVAC qualifier, putting her at 4 under for the 36-hole course in tournament play. Haylock finished 16 shots ahead of Lawrence’s Elizabeth Holden.
“Definitely, I feel so confident right now,” Haylock answered when asked if this is the best she’s ever played. “My game just has been coming together recently, I’ve been playing a lot. It feels really good to perform when I have to, when I’m expected to.”
The team championship went to Presque Isle, which shot 323 to become the first Penobscot Valley Conference team to win Class B since Ellsworth in 2000. The Wildcats held off Freeport (328), Nokomis (332), Yarmouth (342) and Cony (350).
“It was the perfect year to do it, our whole friend group is seniors, so we really needed this one,” said Grant Stubbs, who led the way for Presque Isle with a 78. “I don’t think anybody expected us to play this well. Living up in Aroostook County, nobody expects our team to be that good.”
Spaulding started smoothly, with a birdie on the first hole followed by six straight pars, but he posted back-to-back birdies when he first got a 95-yard approach to stop within two-and-a-half feet of the hole on the eighth, and then when he rolled in a 17-foot par on the ninth. He also birdied the 14th, giving him some cushion that two closing bogeys couldn’t hurt.
“That kind of got me started,” he said. “In golf, a lot of it’s about momentum, getting that confidence up. It really helped in the middle of the round when it was feeling a little close, a little iffy.”
Haylock birdied the third, 10th and 14th holes. She started on 18, one of the holes she said she struggles on the most at Natanis, and though she bogeyed it to begin her day, she said having it out of the way allowed her to get on track.
“My drives and my putting have both been really consistent, something I can rely on,” she said. “I can think ‘If I have a good drive down the middle and a good shot on the green, then I’m pretty much guaranteed a two-putt.’ That’s just really nice to go in thinking I can do that.”
With Spaulding and Haylock posting difficult numbers to catch, the drama turned to the team championship. With Spaulding’s 70 on the board, as well as an 83 and 84 from Ryan Savona and Dylan Foerster, Freeport had the initial lead. But Presque Isle’s Owen MacKinnon came in with a 79 out of the fifth spot, putting the Wildcats ahead for good.
Jack Boone (82) and Gavin Dunleavy (84) also got into the scoring for the Wildcats.
“We thought all hopes were lost, and then I caught up with Owen, who’s our captain and who’s been under the weather for a week, we didn’t even know if he was going to be able to make the trip with us,” Presque Isle Coach Matt Madore said. “For him to pull of 79 is incredible. … Nobody deserves it more than him.”
MacKinnon said he’d been dealing with a stomach ailment, but posted a solid round of 12 pars and only one double bogey.
“I’m happy with how I played, I’m happy with how my team played. You can’t ask for much more,” he said. “Senior year, it’s something that we’ve all looked forward to.”
All six Presque Isle players Friday were seniors. The Wildcats, who were seventh and 35 shots back last year, knew this was their chance to earn their first championship.
“We said it from the beginning, our team motto was ‘Job’s not finished,’ ” Madore said. “(Now) I can tell them the job’s been finished.”
Freeport fell just short of its second title in four years.
“I can sense a little disappointment. There always is when you’re going into the event thinking you can win, and you’ve got a good shot,” Spaulding said. “But I think our team should be super happy. … If we came in this morning and (you said) we’d shoot 328, we’d be pretty happy.”
Alex Grant (77), SJ Welch and Caden Chretien (80) led Nokomis to third, while Sebastien Martinez had an 80 to lead Yarmouth. Gardiner’s Jack Quinn and Lincoln Academy’s Kellen Adickes finished second and third individually with a 73 and 74, respectively.
UPDATE: This story was corrected on Oct. 9 at 10:10 a.m. to show that Freeport High’s Eli Spaulding defeated Gardiner’s Jack Quinn by one stroke to win the 2022 Class B individual golf title.
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