Islanders stay undefeated with win over Interlake | Prep boys golf

Published 5:07 pm Friday, October 3, 2014

For the past few years, the path to a KingCo golf title ran through Interlake. Although that may not be the case this year, it didn’t make Mercer Island’s meet with the Saints any less important.

Mercer Island boys golf remained perfect in KingCo competition, beating the reigning state champs 186-194 Thursday at Twin Rivers Golf Course. For Mercer Island, it was their first win over the Saints in four years.

While many of the faces on Interlake’s squad have changed since last year, Mercer Island coach Tyson Peters said for his team, a win over Interlake was about pride.

“Even though Interlake isn’t going to finish at the top of the league this year because they’ve already had a couple losses, there’s a lot of pride for the seniors particularly to prove that they can finally beat Interlake,” he said.

Interlake’s Grant Cole took medalist honors with a score of 34 on the front nine. Mercer Island’s Zach Evens, returning from a back injury, shot a 35 to lead the Islanders. Will Mansfield shot a 37 to tie for third with Interlake’s Sam Fisher, while Islanders Drew Christofferson, Braden Williams and Ryan Nguyen all shot a 38 to tie for a fifth-place finish.

While KingCo wins have been frequent this year for Mercer Island boys golf, Peters said heading into the season, they were anything but expected.

“We are a pretty experienced team that has a lot of upperclassmen and a lot talent, but we lost our number one player, Zach, to a back injury and our number two player went to school elsewhere,” said Peters. “We had potential, but nothing was expected. But we’ve had a couple players that have stepped up that are playing better than we thought and then Zach just came back. So now, we’re playing at a much different level than we were at the start of the season.”

Among those stepping up are juniors Drew Christofferson, Braden Williams and senior Brendan Yan. Christofferson and Yan have finished with scores in the top five in three of Mercer Island’s four KingCo matches, while Williams has finished in the team’s top five in each KingCo match this season.

With the goal of winning the KingCo title this year, Peters thinks his team is on its way, so long as the Islanders can continue to play well when the pressure is on.

“I think we’re very much in position but we have to keep the gas pedal down and we can’t slack off,” he said. “If we have one bad day, we’re not going to win KingCo. We’re in the position we wanted to be and now we have to prove that we can earn it.”