Hillcrest High boys golf team ended its season with a round of golf together at a local course.

“We could have a dinner, but these kids like to play golf so why not?” their coach, Dave Richardson, said.

The weather that October day was perfect, unlike it was for 4A region 10 championships, which were held at West Valley City’s The Ridge Golf Club course.

“It was cold and wet, just a complete downpour,” Richardson said. “(We were) wetter than ducks on a pond.”

It was a season where the coach was hopeful for his team’s chances to make state, but numbers didn’t add up in the Huskies’ favor.

“In the state, we ended up in a tie for 17th and the top 16 teams get to play at state. We were something like 1.9 strokes out. It was that close,” he said about the six team scores that he reported. “I have four really good golfers, however they were just never consistent enough to all play really well at the same time and that’s what hurt us.”

A highlight for the team was when the team competed at the Stansbury tournament.

“They all play great that day and we came in second in that tournament. If they all played like that the rest of the time, we would have made it. We have the talent, but we just didn’t have the consistency we needed,” Richardson said.

He said that the region was dominated by Park City, one of the top teams in the state. Cottonwood, Murray, Stansbury and Jordan high school teams also got state berths. Hillcrest finished sixth in region.

Five Huskies will graduate, leaving two returning starters Alex Lopez and Max Schramm. Richardson anticipates sophomores Miles Morgan and Chandler Chase will move up to varsity with consistent practice in the offseason.

“They’re good friends, got along great and they all pull for each other,” he said. “It’s a pretty tight-knit group. They’re a great team.” λ