MOSES LAKE – The Moses Lake Mavericks boys golf team became District champs following their first-place finish in the Big 9 District tournament at the Moses Lake Golf Club. 

“I feel like every single one of us did what they needed to do,” said the Mavs’ Drayson Nighswonger. “We were able to get the win, which is great and had a lot of fun.” 

The Mavs played both Monday and Tuesday in the tournament and ended both days in first place, said Mavs head coach Terrance Melbye. Day one, they ended the day with an overall score of 303, with Mason Bradford taking second, Quinten Whittall taking fourth, Nighswonger in fifth, Jonah Heaps in eighth, Christian Mathis in 10th and Grady Walker in 12th. 

“It was a good week,” said Mavs’ Mason Bradford. “Monday was pretty good; we had a big leap at the end of the day, and we all played pretty well.” 

On day two, the Mavs earned an overall of 612 on the course, putting them around 21 strokes ahead of second-place Eastmont. Bradford ended in third place in the overall rankings, hitting 148 on the course with Nighswonger taking the fifth-place spot at 151. 

“I feel like I played pretty good Monday, I didn’t play great, but I was able to bounce back and play better, so I was pretty proud of myself to do that,” said Nighswonger. 

The rest of the team kept close as well, with Whittall taking seventh place with 159, Mathis in eighth place at 161, Heaps taking twelfth place with 167 and Walker at seventeenth at 178. This put the team in first for District champs with West Valley, Eastmont, and Wenatchee taking the last three spots. 

The Mavs now head toward the state tournament, coming up next week and have some time to prepare. Melbye said the course they will be playing on has a lot of water, which is something the team doesn’t typically deal with where they practice so making sure they have good accuracy will be vital in their performance. 

“We’ve got a good chance to place real well there too,” said the coach. “We’ll just keep going, they’ve improved, and we’ve got some good players.” 

The Mavs golfers are feeling excited as they head toward their state championship tournament. After their success this week and the improvements that they have made throughout the season, the team is feeling confident in their abilities going into next week. 

“At the beginning of the year, we knew that this is what we wanted to do, and we did it,” said Bradford. “We feel good going to the next week at state.” 

The Mavs boys golf team will be playing at Hawks Prairie Golf Course in Lacey for the State Championship tournament starting Tuesday at 7 a.m. 

    Drayson Nighswonger makes a final drive on day two of the district tournament. He ended the tournament in fifth place with a score of 151.
  

    Jonah Heaps delivers a solid approach into the green toward the end of the second day of the district tournament.
  

    Quinten Whittall earned an overall score of 159 at the tournament. He earned a fourth-place finish on day one and a seventh-place finish on day two.
  

    With a final overall score of 148 over the span of the two days of the tournament, Mason Bradford earns third place overall in the tournament rankings.