When it’s state championship time, you can’t waste a stroke.
Mascenic and Conant both send representatives to the NHIAA state championship today at Waukewan Golf Club in Center Harbor, and each team knows what it takes to be competitive at that level.
“The key is just going to be lost balls, keep those down low,” said Conant’s Nick Germano, who went to states last year as a freshman and returns again today. “It’s really going to be down to the putting, the short game. If you three-putt every hole your score is going to be tanked by it. A successful round is probably not even lose a ball.”
Mascenic’s Evan Martel, who wastes words less often than he wastes strokes, put it even more succinctly.
“Play good, putt good, short game,” Martel said, winding down a Tuesday practice at the Shattuck.
Mascenic underwent a lot of changes from last year to this. The Vikings dropped down to Division IV, changed their home course to the Shattuck, and, after graduating a slew of seniors, took the course for the first time in recent memory without an Ojala on the team — or any upperclassmen, for that matter. But Mascenic hasn’t let their youth slow them down.
“We started building from last year with our freshman, obviously they’re sophomores now, and a couple of our sophomores played through the summer, and it shows,” said Mascenic coach Jeff Hakala. “I’ve really proud of our progress so far this year, we’ve worked really hard at it over the last month and a half.”
Leading that charge is Ethan Bilodeau, a sophomore who’s improved his game dramatically since last season. Bilodeau said he’d been playing at least three times a week over the summer, and the re sult was a team-leading 43.5-stroke average.
“I’m thrilled,” Bilodeau said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
In between mammoth drives from the range, Bilodeau said his improvement came mostly from his work on the putting green, something he hopes will translate to today’s opening round action.
“Keeping it in bounds and putting” are key at states, he said. “As long as you don’t hit any horrible, slice outs, take drops, and putt well, you should be fine.”
Mascenic made the cut as a team, so accompanying Bilodeau to Waukewan will be Martel (48.77), Anthony Andronaco, who averaged 49.55 as the result of a few bad rounds but showed great promise on his good ones, George Lisio (49.77), Kolby Lampinen (49.9) and Megan Robichaud (52.75).
“That was the goal this year was to definitely make states as a team,” Hakala said. “We’ve lost five or six matches by five strokes or less so we’re right there with those guys.”
Back in Division III, Conant competes with the likes of Derryfield and Bow. With that stiff competition up top (Bow is gunning for their fifth straight team title), the Orioles landed just two individuals in the state meet: Germano and Gavin Ketola. Nonetheless, it was the best season for Conant golf as a team in years.
“We played very well together,” Germano said. “Last year, kids were shooting 50s and 60s. This year, we had five guys in one match shoot under 50, so definitely a lot of improvement.”
Conant coach Tom Borden said it was the little things that made the difference.
“It’s just amazing about how they started thinking about their three-putts,” Borden said. “By counting our putts, we’ve scored better. The discussions we’ve had about the little strokes that you waste, they’ve wasted less and they’ve really borne down and putted better.”
Both Germano (49) and Ketola (46.7) went to states last season, and that experience can only help. Plus, the Orioles saw the best of Division III during the course of the season.
“We’ve played Bow, we’ve played Derryfield,” Germano said. “I’ve played with Ronan (Lucey, of Bow); he’s a great competitor. I think just knowing what I’m up against is going to be a key factor.”
Ketola agreed.
“I like playing with Bow,” Ketola said. “Doug (Champagne, reigning DIII champ) is a good guy to play with. He’s definitely got some skill to him. It makes me want to compete stroke by stroke, see if I can one-up him every single shot.”
On this level, every single shot counts.