The Kwalikum Kondors golf team won the Island championship for the third year in a row and is heading to the provincials looking sharp.
Taking place at Arbutus Ridge near Victoria, the Kondors managed to come out on top of the field on a course that challenged all the schools involved.
KSS shot a combined team score of 313, capturing their third Island title in the last four years (2012 was canceled) and winning their way to provincials.
With the provincial championships taking place at Pheasant Glen in Qualicum Beach next week, the Kondors already had a berth as the host team but are much happier to earn their way in.
“We weren’t going to settle for backing in to the provincials,” coach Butch Gayton said.
“We wanted to make sure that we showed we were for real at the Islands and we did just that. Our team played incredibly well considering how tough the course was playing and we showed why we’re the defending provincial champions.”
The Kondors will be gearing up for the provincials, May 26–28. Monday is a practice day, with the tournament kicking off with a shotgun start at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
“It’s going to be exciting for us, for sure,” Gayton said. “We’re going to be on our home turf and we’re going to be defending our title, there’s not much more to get excited about than that right there. It’s going to be a great tournament for these kids and we’re hoping to end the season the way we said we were going to when it started.”
The Kondors still have their work cut out for them, with the remaining five spots on the team open for anyone to grab. This showed at the Islands with Grade 12 Santiago Bourya shooting an opening round of 81, his highest round as a Kondor. His teammates picked him up though, with Scott Lemon, Grade 12, having a round of 76. Cole Morrison, Grade 12, had a round of 77 and Michelle Waters, also in Grade 12, had her best round of the season, shooting a 79.
“Santi was a little under the weather but luckily we had some good scores to balance it out,” Gayton said. “Scott continued his great play as of late and Cole brought his game too. I was really pleased to see Michelle have her best round of the season out there and that really helped us get closer to that 300 mark as a team.”
With three Grade 10’s looking to earn a spot in the top five for provincials, Blair Stewart fired a round of 81, Anthony Trozzo had a round of 82 and Masato Wilson finished with an 87.
“It’s funny because it’s there for the taking,” Gayton said. “Masato shoots an 87 at the Islands then comes back and has the best score during our team round with 74. It’s really wide open for them to take.”