Sophomore Crockett Stearns had the hot hand over 36 holes for the Wood River High School golf team during this week's State 4A golf tournament at Jerome Country Club.
He led the five-golfer Wood River team to a state trophy for finishing fourth of 10 teams during the May 12-13 contest.
Stearns (80-78 for 158) earned an individual medal for placing in the top 10 of the 58-golfer field. He finished sixth overall, just five strokes out of second place. Individual medalist was Moscow's Chris Williams (69-69 for 138), a 16-stroke winner.
Wood River coach Bill Petzke was proud of the young Wolverines, who saved some of their best rounds for the final action of the 2008 prep season. The Wolverines had qualified for state by placing third of seven teams in the Great Basin Conference tournament May 6 at Riverside GC in Pocatello.
Tying for 19th place were Wood River sophomores Danny Sundali (84-81 for 165) and Jonathan Hobbs (85-80 for 165). Another sophomore, Chance McCroskey (89-80 for 169), had a tough first day but placed 33rd.
Senior Brian Town (96-88 for 184) rounded out the team. Wood River (338-319 for 657) ended up fourth behind second-place Moscow (327-315 for 642) and third-place Skyview of Nampa (331-319 for 650).
Winning its second straight State 4A boys' championship was Pocatello (326-316 for 642). Pocatello tied Moscow but won the fifth state golf title in school history in a sudden-death playoff that lasted only one hole.
Meanwhile, coach Harry Weekes' Community School boys were the second-place team at the May 6 District 2A meet and qualified five players for the State 2A tourney May 12-13 at Rupert Country Club.
At state, however, the Cutthroats (405 points) fell short of qualifying as one of the top four 2A teams that made it into the second 18-hole round. Here were the Sun Valley scorers for the May 12 first round:
Max Harris 97, Cody Boeger 98, Bob Mollineaux 103, Spencer Harris 107 and Taylor Riviello 108.
Placing all five of its golfers in the top eight, Soda Springs (319-302 for 621) captured its second State 2A championship in three years by 71 strokes over 2007 winner Nampa Christian (349-343 for 692).
The individual medalist 36-hole, a winner by two strokes, was Zach DeKruyf (72-76 for 148) of Magic Valley Christian out of Twin Falls.
