LACEY — One shot made all the difference.
Not one particular shot, but any of the 610 strokes the Mountain View boys golf team took at the Class 3A state championships.
Mountain View won the program’s first state title by the smallest of margins, edging Roosevelt of Seattle by one shot Wednesday at the two-day tournament at The Golf Club at Hawks Prairie.
Senior Alexander Rigby shot a 1-over par 73 Wednesday to finish tied for eighth at 6-over, eight shots behind winner Conrad Chrisman of Stanwood.
Juniors Grady Millar and Spencer Moody were one shot back, tied for 13th. Braden Kendrick finished tied for 39th and Reese Barner finished 64th.
Mountain View entered the state tournament knowing the value of every shot. The Thunder won the bi-district title last week by one shot over Gig Harbor, which finished three shots back to place third in state.
“We told them it will come down to one shot and we want to be on the right side of one shot,” said Thunder assistant coach James Peterson. “We were last week and we were this week.”
Peterson was head coach of the program for 15 years before handing those reins to Dan Larson this season. He said good decisions on the course were crucial to placing first.
Nowhere was that more apparent than the par-4 17th hole, where both Rigby and Moody found themselves in trouble off the tee.
“Most high school golfers are going to do that hero shot,” Peterson said. “They punched out and took the bogey, a good bogey. That mattered. If they would have done a hero shot and hit a tree, we’re not here right now.”
As Millar headed to the 18th tee in the tournament’s final group, he got an update from Peterson on the team scores. Knowing a bogey would win the championship as long as Roosevelt’s final golfer didn’t make birdie, Millar played the par-5 18th conservatively.
“I knew pretty much exactly where we were at,” said Millar, who bogeyed the 18th. “I was thinking team first. I hit 2-iron off the tee, then a 5-iron. I came up a little shorter than I wanted but it worked out.”
Playing in the next-to-last group, Moody shot 77 one day after carding a team-best 75 in wet, windy conditions to help Mountain View enter the final round in second place, two shots behind Roosevelt.
“We’ve all worked so incredibly hard, everyone on the team since freshman year,” Moody said. “Just to see the work pay off is a really great thing.”
Rigby admitted to being nervous throughout the tournament. He said Peterson and Larson helped him stay focused.
“Every shot, I was like please don’t mess this up,” Rigby said. “Stay present and every shot counts. One shot here, one shot there and we ended up winning by one shot.”
Mountain View has had individual state champions, most recently Graham Moody in 2018. But this year’s group had the right ingredients to bring the team championship trophy back to Vancouver.
“This is special,” Peterson said. “Most people, they never win a state championship.”
