Submitted by the Friday Harbor High School golf team

The 2018 1B and 2B Boys Bi-District Championship Golf Tournament was hosted by the Gallery Golf Club in Oak Harbor on Thursday, May 17.

“Congratulations go out to the small island league and district 1 as they captured seven of the top 10 spots for the state high school golf tournament,” said Friday Harbor coach Jack Rice.

Orcas will be sending the Shunk twins from the girls’ team and Leif Gustafsen from the boys. Lopez made it a clean sweep — five ladies from their girls’ team and two boys will be headed to the state finals again this year. Mountain View Christian captured three of the coveted spots and both alternate positions.

Friday Harbor players came close to going to state, explained Rice.

“As I try to explain to my players, there are probably 100 golfers in district 1 and 2 and only 10 get to go to the state tournament,” he said. “We have 20 guys on our team who wish they could have just made it to the bi-district event.”

Dylan Posenjak started out his the round with an easy par on the first hole. On No. 2, he landed in the tall grass and by the time he holed out he was in double digits — 10. The wind was out of his sails and he spent the rest of the day trying to play catch up.

“As a senior, I know Dylan is disappointed he isn’t making the return trip to the state tournament,” said Rice. “I don’t think these players realized how difficult a task it is to make it to the big show at the end of the season. Dylan has had a great high school career and I’m proud to have been his coach.”

Freshman Ethan Havel and Junior Peter Kulseth both had great fun and gained a lot of experience getting to play in the bi-district tournament, added Rice.

“I heard things like ‘Coach, that 90 percent air rule on trees, I’m not sure about that,’” said Rice. “Peter told me he hasn’t seen so much cabbage in his life. Ethan commented that he could see that he lost a shot on every hole just because of inexperience. The good news is, we will be back next year, smarter and ready to play.”

As they were leaving the ferry, Rice said players asked him what time practice would be the next day.

“’The regular time,’” he said he told them. “‘We’re going to have a three-club tournament to see how easy it is to make a bogie on every hole.’ I love it; these guys don’t want to quit!”