The grass is smooth and green for the Viking golf teams, rolling right along toward district championships. Both teams took down La Conner and Bear Creek in recent matches to retain undefeated status for the season.

On April 13, the Orcas girls’ golf team beat La Conner with a score of 239-255. Jessica Gudgell scored a low of 59 to qualify for the district championships.

“They all played very well and the rest are getting closer to qualifying,” said coach Bobby Olmsted.

The boys’ team also beat La Conner, with a score of 211-228. Taylor Diepenbrock scored a 39 to tie for the first place medal, and many of the boys notched up qualifying scores for districts. Christopher Ghazel hit a 43, Jacob Hansen a 50, Miles McCloskey a 43, Henri Bredouw a 40, and Alan Coe a 45.

On April 16, the girls outplayed Bear Creek for a win of 176-187. Tara O’Neill qualified for districts, with a low score of 59.

“The girls are playing better every match, and with the remaining games all at home I expect to qualify a full girls team to districts,” said Olmsted. “The weather is helping, as is the hard work at the range by all. There has been lots of improvement with all the players.”

The boys also won their match, at 218-220. Diepenbrock took home the 1st place medal with a score of 37, and Coe took 2nd place with a 38. Sam Sare qualified for districts with a 47.

The boys will most likely have a 18 hole playoff among themselves to determine which players will fill the last three positions to represent the Vikings at districts. This next week’s three home matches will determine who will be in that playoff.

“We have a hard couple of weeks coming up and will have to keep our focus to continue the level of play that we need going into league and tri district championships,” said Olmsted. “This is crunch time and they all can start to feel the pressure. They all are working very hard and it is good to see new players get their scores down… I am very proud of them all.”