Courtesy of NCGA
After consecutive years of finishing second and third at the CIF Boys State Championship, Stevenson School had nowhere to go but up. On Wednesday at Quail Lodge GC, Stevenson did exactly that winning the 2013 CIF Boys State Championship with a team score of 368, 13-over par.
“We’ve been so close the last two years and now we finally did it,” said junior Seb Crampton.
The small private school located Pebble Beach was led by the junior, who fired a one-under par 70, but ultimately it was a collective team effort as solid rounds by Drew Nelson (71, even-par), Sunny Yan (72, one-over), Michael Decker (76, five-over) and Nick Simmons (79, eight-over) accounted for the team’s total. Senior Kyle John, who posted an 82, 11-over par, had his score thrown out as the format takes the top five of a team’s six scores.
With all the Stevenson players going out in the first six groups of the day there was a good hour of waiting around the scoreboard to see how de facto tournament favorites Sunny Hills HS would fare. All players on the Sunny Hills team went out in the final six groups and after their start player Jack Chung, the fourth player to post, came in with a five-under 66, there was a feeling from the Stevenson camp that it might be the bridesmaid once again.
“I thought [Sunny Hills] was going to win it,” said Stevenson head coach Bill Hankison after Chung’s 66 was posted. “But once I saw the second [to last] score posted I thought, ‘now wait a minute.’”
That second to last score posted was an 80 by David Won, and when the final Sunny Hills score was posted, a 76 by Chris Chu, a loud cheer came from Stevenson’s players, coaches and parents. The Pirates had a CIF Boys Golf title to their name, edging out Sunny Hills by two strokes 368 to 370.
“That was very exciting,” said Hankinson. “You never want to wish anybody to play [poorly], we just were fortunate [to win].”
Hankison, who has been the varsity golf coach at Stevenson School for several years now and at the school for 36 years total, was glad to finally come away with a state title. He paid tribute to his predecessor John Powers, who he claimed built the program to where it is today. While many players and their parents were now proclaiming that Hankinson can retire as a coach, Hankinson has no plans hanging it up as he’s already signed a contract to coach through 2014.
“We’ve got a real good nucleus [of players], so I’m very excited for next year,” he said.
Despite coming up short of winning a team title, Sunny Hills’ Chung won the individual state title with his stellar five-under par 66. After playing the first eight holes at even-par with a pair of birdies and bogeys, Chung got revved up and finished with six birdies and one bogey over the final 10 holes.
“I was just trying to shoot [a score] like I did at the SCGA/CIF Championships,” said Chung, who coincidentally won that individual also with a 66. “I was just trying to go [low] to help my team.”
Finishing as runner-up in the individual championship was Michael Delgado of Branson High School, who fired a three-under par 68. Corey Pereira of Ponderosa High School and Josh McCarthy of De La Salle finished tied for third at two-under par 69. Three golfers finished tied for fifth at one-under par 70, including Crampton, Tailin Song of Torrey Pines High School and Brandon Tsujimoto of Damien High School.