The Mascenic golf team is undefeated and looks poised to repeat as Division IV champion, with defending individual champion Joseph Lisio and freshman phenom Josiah Hakala neck-and-neck at the top of the heap.
“I definitely hope to defend on my last hurrah,” Lisio said after Thursday’s Mascenic victory over Sunapee and Hillsboro-Deering at the Shattuck. “If anyone wins other than me, I’d love to see [Hakala] win. I’ve played with him all year long – not just because we’re on the same team, you know, we play at the same course and he puts all the work in that you need.
The freshman edged out the senior during Thursday’s match, shooting the day’s best round with a 39 (25 Stableford points) to top Lisio by five. It was a relatively easy win for the Vikings (58 points), as Sunapee’s No. 1 was injured and the Lakers scored a 22, while Hillsboro fielded just three golfers and scored nine.
The Vikings are now 13-0 atop Division IV, ahead of Woodsville (14-1), Farmington (10-4) and White Mountains (10-5). Of those, Lisio said White Mountains looks like the biggest threat to Mascenic’s shot at a second straight DIV title, which would give the Vikings a sixth overall golf championship between Class M, Division III and DIV.
Mascenic played and beat a shorthanded White Mountains team earlier in the season, but Lisio said he expects it to be tougher when the Spartans have their full team.
“With all their guys, they’re definitely right with us,” Lisio said. “So I don’t think it’ll be easy. We’ll need to go out there and play well.”
Mascenic appears to the two best golfers in the division in Hakala and Lisio, but two golfers don’t win a championship, and as such, the Vikings’ hopes may ride with the emergence of Tyrus Krook, who’s getting better and better in the third spot. Behind Krook, the Vikings have Casey Brox, who contributed to last year’s championship team, Seth Talbot, and Jeremiah Barthelmess.
The Vikings were scheduled to play a pair of matches at Farmington this week to finish out the regular season before competing in the Division IV championship at Laconia Country Club on Oct. 12.