Oct. 12—VASSALBORO — Jade Haylock made history Saturday afternoon at the Class B golf state championships, while Jack Quinn and the Gardiner Tigers enjoyed a rise to the top.
Haylock shot a 5-over 77 in howling winds at Natanis Golf Course to win her fourth straight Class B girls’ championship, and Quinn shot 4-over 76 to win the boys’ title and lead the Tigers to their first team championship. Gardiner’s team total of 347 beat Morse (359), Belfast (360), Yarmouth (361) and York (364).
In Class C, Fort Fairfield’s Michael Bruce won the boys’ title with a 77, while Kents Hill’s Amelie Zachrinson took the girls’ title with a 93. Maranacook won the team championship, its second in three years, with a 347 to beat Dexter (350), Kents Hill (351), Fort Fairfield (352) and Houlton (353).
Haylock, a Leavitt senior, became the second player in state history to win four girls’ state titles, joining Abby Spector of Waterville from 1995-98. In all four years, Haylock had the best score in the state across all three classes. Spector won her titles when there was only one girls’ state championship division.
“I feel really proud of myself, it obviously feels really good to just see all of my hard work that I put in for how long now I’ve been playing golf,” she said. “There are a lot of great memories out here, not only (the) Tomahawk or Arrowhead (courses), but also high school golf as a whole. It’s just sad to think that this is it.”
Quinn, who had finished as runner-up in Class B to Freeport’s Eli Spaulding as a freshman and sophomore, had no one to get in his way this time, with Spaulding now in college. Quinn finished four shots clear of Fryeburg’s Sam Day.
“I just knew if I played my game, I had a very good chance,” he said. “I’ve practiced so much, I’ve put so much time in this year and my game has gone to the next level.”
Moments later, Quinn had more cause for celebration as the scores came in and made clear that Gardiner had won. The Tigers went 6-4 during the regular season, but with Quinn, Austin Gould (85), Brady Peacock (personal-best 86) and Hunter Stark (100) leading the way, Gardiner came through in the biggest spot of the season.
“It was not planned, for sure. The boys came up big today,” said Ian Gould, Gardiner’s first-year coach. “I told the kids today, we’re playing with house money. We weren’t expecting to be here. … We really needed to perform for one day.”
One of the Tigers yelled out “That’s called Gardiner golf!” when the final scores were posted. Moments later, the team gave Quinn an impromptu water bottle bath to celebrate.
“It’s the biggest upset,” Quinn said. “We did not think we were winning. But we did.”
The players on the Tomahawk and Arrowhead courses had to deal with gusting winds that knocked out power at Natanis and made every shot an adventure. Under the blustery conditions, 8-iron shots became 5-iron shots, pitches became punches, and players were left questioning every swing.
Haylock made the adjustment, birdieing four holes en route to beating Lawrence’s Elizabeth Holden by seven shots. One of them was on the 13th, when Haylock used a towel to sweep aside the myriad leaves in her way, then rolled in a 20-foot putt.
“I think that it was good for me. It slowed down my process,” she said. “I wouldn’t just zap it (with the rangefinder), grab a club and hit it. I had to zap it, think about all the different components, the wind, the elevation, the direction of the wind. … You just have to remember that everyone’s out here playing in the same conditions.”
Quinn began his day with three bogeys in six holes when the wind was at its hardest, then was 1 over the rest of the way. He birdied the 15th and first holes after starting on the eighth.
“I had no clue how much it would take on or off my clubs,” Quinn said. “I was hitting a pitching wedge from 190. It was so weird. It was different. I’ve never been so clueless about how far I was going to hit it. … It was brutal. It was insane.”
Quinn held off Day, Nick Needham of John Bapst (81), Kellen Adickes of Lincoln Academy (82) and Morse’s Tuck Walker, Belfast’s Joe Parker and Yarmouth’s Winslow Noel, all of whom tied for fifth with 83s.
In Class C, Maranacook got an 83 from James Marr, 84 from Josh Herzing, 89 from Mason Pare and 91 from Ethan Chilton.
“We are solid one through six, the whole way,” Coach Ryan Meserve said. “Everyone didn’t play as well as they wanted to, but they really were prepared to trust their teammates and to come in and shoot a good round. They trusted their swings. The wind sometimes took it elsewhere, but for the most part, the team itself relied on each other.”
Meserve wasn’t sure as the tournament was unfolding that it was going the Black Bears’ way.
“This was one I didn’t think we were going to get,” he said. “(But) we did what we’ve been doing all year, putting four good scores out there.”
Fort Fairfield’s Bruce avenged his disappointment from last year, when he led by four shots going into the final hole but lost the title with an 11 on the 18th. This year, a closing bogey was enough for Bruce to earn the victory, with Spruce Mountain’s Alex Grimaldi (79) two shots back. Hodgdon’s David Tuttle (81), Dexter’s Chase Farnsworth (82) and Maranacook’s Marr rounded out the top five.
“I’ve been stewing over it,” said Bruce, who had birdies on the fourth and 17th holes.
Zachrinson went from finishing runner-up by a stroke last year to having the Class C girls’ title all to herself. She beat Mt. Abram’s Laurel Sleeper (98) by five shots.
“It feels great, I’m really happy. I had a great group to play with, it was a fun time,” she said. “Every shot had to be analyzed. After 13 holes, it was getting tough mentally, but that’s when it was nice to have good players to play with.”
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