This past week, April 15-18, the Wakeland golf teams competed at the regional golf tournaments, and both teams earned a spot to play in the state tournament, with the boys placing second as a team and the girls placing third.

“Our team is really good this year. We had a lot of young guys last year, and they got better going into this year,” sophomore Luke Colton said. “They did well at regionals, so [I hope] we can keep that going at state.”

Individually, Colton led the way as regional champion for the boys (72, 70), and junior Tripp Tuthill (74, 81), sophomore Jude Robbins (79, 80), sophomore Maxton Brown (79, 80), and junior Nick Granitz (78, 84) each contributed greatly as top performers for Wakeland. For the girls, freshman Vincia Li had a strong showing (74, 79), earning a spot on the second all-region team. Sophomore Nicole Nikolaytchev (88, 73) and senior Veronica Escalona (79, 83) also performed well.

“I just think I am playing really well right now. I’ve played the course pretty well [in the past], and I have some good experience there,” Colton said. “Just playing it a few times, I know what to do.”

“Basically, for me, I would say I made as many putts as possible and also just stayed focused,” Li said.

After the boys team finished in second place at the state tournament last year, Colton focuses on building on the past.

“State last year was a really good experience, so I am just glad to be back,” Colton said. “Hopefully, we can win it this year.”

The state golf tournaments will be in Georgetown, with the boys tournament being April 29-30 and the girls tournament being May 6-7.

“What excites me about state this year is a lot of good teams competing and playing with a bunch of really good players that I know we can beat,” Tuthill said.

“All we can do is focus on what we can control, and I know we are going to go out there and play our best because we are having fun, we want to be doing well, and we are well prepared,” Nikolaytchev said.