Medical Lake's winning team at the Chewelah Invitational on April 28. (L-R): Logan Dianda, Brendan Petro, Michael O'Brien, Elijah Carroll and Robert Fisher. Head coach Jim Mason, who earned his first tournament win is seen in the back.
The Medical Lake boys' golf team went to Chewelah on April 28 with the idea in mind to scout out the place where state tournament berths might be decided.
They came away with a bonus, a very rare team victory over the 13-school field in the invitational featuring a variety of 4A, 3A and 2A schools.
The Cardinals edged North Central and University 360-368, two Greater Spokane League schools. Michael O'Brien's 85 and Brendan Petro's 86 paced Medical Lake. NC's Grant McDonald was the low net at 77.
"I wanted the kids to take a good look at the course," head coach Jim Mason said. "That was our main purpose for going, there's a lot of timber and it's easy to get in trouble."
O'Brien put his driver away and used his 5-wood and it kept him in the fairway, Mason said. For Petro, his success stemmed from hitting a lot of irons.
"The whole key is keeping it out of the trees," Mason said. "It's not like it is one or two trees here and there, it's thick timber."
Keeping shots in the many narrow fairways was the key for the team, too. "They all shot pretty good scores."
All the kids shot really good scores and Chewelah is a tough, tight course. "For them to shoot like they did, I was real proud of them," Mason said.
The team win was a long time coming for Mason, he said. "It's the first one for me, I've been doing it for 12 years."
He likes how his team is playing with the state qualifying beginning soon.
"The team is putting it together at the right time," Mason said. "Hopefully they'll keep playing like that."
Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.
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