Vikings finish school-record 4th at state; Eagle girls land 9th

One day after positioning itself within striking distance of a state title, the Fort Walton Beach boys golf team turned in another stellar round to finish fourth in the Class 2A state tournament and secure the program’s highest finish ever at The Country Club at Silver Springs Shores in Ocala.

Brett Ochsenreiter (146) finished tied for 17th individually while fellow senior Kyle Andre (148) came in tied for 25th individually over the two-day tournament.

“It’s been great,” Ochsenreiter said. “We’ve had a fun team the whole year. It just came together all at the right time.”

Fort Walton Beach wasn’t the only area program securing a top-10 finish.

At the Ocala Golf Club, the Niceville girls team earned a second straight top-10 finish as the Eagles tied Cypress Bay for ninth in the girls 2A state tournament.

Niceville senior Jaime Jordan closed birdie-par on the final two holes to finish the tournament tied for 22nd individually with a score of 156 after back-to-back 78s. It was Jordan’s fourth straight appearance at state.

 “I really wanted (the team) to be in the top 10 again this year since it’s my last year,” Jordan said. “It means a lot.”

Lake Mary (625) won the title with Viera (633), Durant (652), Gulf Breeze (655) and Timber Creek (667) rounding out the top five. Cypress Bay’s Juliana Herrera was the medalist with a 139. Gulf Breeze’s Ashleigh Ryals tied for seventh with a 146.

Niceville’s Ivey Kelly fired a 175 while Rachel Butterfield finished at 182. Rebekah Pruett (185) and Kayla Bloor (189) rounded out Niceville’s scoring for the tournament.

“Last year we had two seniors and a junior, so we had a pretty veteran team,” Eagles coach Mitch Inness said. “For this young team to only drop two spots says a lot for the future. I’d take a top-nine all day with the young team that we had.”

Making its second-ever appearance at the state level, Fort Walton Beach’s boys were the only team to have every member shoot in the 70s on Tuesday, an effort that had the Vikings only four strokes back of Day 1 leader St. Thomas Aquinas. On Wednesday, the Vikings remained steadfast while teams around them — including St. Thomas Aquinas — saw their positioning in a constant state of flux.

Behind the play of medalist Han Kim (135), Lake Mary (583) surged atop the leader board to capture this year’s title.

Martin County (591) and Cypress Bay (596) finished in front of the Vikings (604), who finished one stroke ahead of Olympia and six strokes better than St. Thomas Aquinas. Individually, Pace’s Tyler Klava tied for 11th with a 145.

“I think it says everything about the type of guys they are and the type of character they have,” Viking coach John Lavin said. “A top-five finish for our program, the best in the Panhandle … I think we represented the Panhandle very well.”

Davis Bowyer (160), Duncan Conroy (163) and Andrew Snyder (150) rounded out the Vikings’ scoring.

“A lot of credit goes to (assistant coach) Matt Lindley for helping us deal with each course as we’ve made this run,” Lavin said. “They knew about the greens, where to place shots, when to attack different holes, they had a really good game-plan and a lot of that had to do with what Matt had to offer.”