Warden Boys golf earns fourth at state
CALEB PEREZ | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 11 months, 1 week AGO
Jaden Hernandez, Everett Cox and JJ Madsen were the three golfers on the Warden team to qualify for the state golf tournament at MeadowWood Golf Course. Each of the golfers plans to continue with the team next season.
COURTESY PHOTO/WARDEN HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETICS
Jaden Hernandez and JJ Madsen stand with the trophy they earned at the state tournament. This is the first state trophy earned by the team since 1993.
WARDEN – The Warden Cougars boys golf team earned fourth place at the 2B state golf tournament at MeadowWood Golf Course in Spokane last week.
“It was a cool experience getting to go up a day early and getting to go through the course with golf carts,” said Cougar’s golfer Jaden Hernandez. “It’s a lot playing on a course like that and having to take things serious.”
The Cougars had three boys qualify for state: Hernandez, Everett Cox and JJ Madsen. The par for MeadowWood Golf Course is 72 and it spans 6,728 yards.
Cox finished the first round with a score of 106 and did not play on day two; Madsen finished the tournament on day two with an overall score of 178 and Hernandez finished the tournament with a score of 170. Hernandez tied for 19th and Madsen earned 21st in the tournament, earning the team their fourth-place spot.
“It was cool to go up as a freshman and go up against the top dogs in the state,” said Cox.
This year was the first year since 1993 that the golf team has earned a trophy at the state level, said Cougars head coach Tim Carlberg. This year's team also earned an award for having the highest GPA out of all the other 2B varsity teams in the state
“The guys got better as the year went on,” said Carlberg. “We peaked at the right time, which was at the end of the season.”
Carlberg said that the success of the team this season is in part thanks to the generosity of Sage Hills Golf Course for allowing the students to use the course to both practice and play on.
The Cougars are made up of mostly younger players, with the state golfers Cox and Madsen being freshmen and Hernandez a sophomore, but each of them has had a few years of experience with the sport.
“Two years ago, during the summer, my brother and cousin went out on the course, and I went with them,” said Cox. “From there, I started to really like it.”
Hernandez grew up around the sport with his dad and friends and one day decided to go out and give it a try in eighth grade. From there he started going out to golfing clubs and joined the high school team as a freshman.
Madsen said he had a similar experience as he would go out on the golf course with his father when he was younger and once he was in eighth grade decided to try it out, ended up enjoying it and has continued to improve his game since.
The golfers are very proud of the success they had this season, earning second in both districts and subdistricts before their fourth-place finish at the state tournament. They said they learned a lot from their time playing this year, going on trips and getting the opportunity to play on a variety of different courses.
“It was a fun year, and we experienced a lot of growth since last year,” said Madsen. “I hope to continue our growth and place higher next year.”
Each of the state golfers plans on returning next year, and Carlberg said that he is seeing a lot of start-ups in the younger students as they move up.
“The team is young and will continue to string together in the years to come,” said Carlberg.
WRDN:
Player R1/R2 Total
Jaden Hernandez 84/86 170
JJ Madsen 84/94 178
Everett Cox 106/x x
Warden boys Varsity Golf Roster 2025
Jaden Hernandez – Sophomore
JJ Madsen – Freshman
Everett Cox – Freshman
Raul Lepe – Senior
Soren Clausen - Freshman
Jaxsen Erickson – Freshman
Jordan Martinez - Freshman
Jacob Pruneda - Freshman
Angel Silva - Freshman
Aiden Castro - Sophomore
Jaden Hernandez and JJ Madsen stand with the trophy they earned at the state tournament. This is the first state trophy earned by the team since 1993.ARTICLES BY CALEB PEREZ
BBCC eyes budget and spring enrollment
MOSES LAKE — During Big Bend Community College’s April 30 board meeting the college President, Sarah Thompson Tweedy, shared the counts for spring enrollment and Full Time Enrollment numbers for Spring of 2026 along with updates on where the budget sits. “We still have some work to do in terms of systematically going through our expenses and seeing how much of the requests that we have before us, how many of those we can put off,” said Thompson Tweedy. “There’s the opportunity to close that gap by reducing our expenses, but the challenge is, we’ve also had some expenses go up.” As of April 15, 2026 the spring quarter head count was up nearly 18% from 2025, but total FTE’s and state-funded FTEs were down 6.9% and 11.6% respectively, according to the board agenda.
Huskies best Tigers in OT
Othello moves on to second round of districts
OTHELLO — The Othello Huskies (11-5) extended their postseason push after earning a close 2-1 victory in overtime against the Ephrata Tigers (7-10) in the first round of the 2A district tournament. The game winning goal came in second overtime when Othello sophomore Samuel Marroquin knocked the ball into the back of the net. “It was a tough game, Ephrata is definitely a tough opponent, but I feel like we had prepared well for the week,” said Marroquin. “We definitely had a good game plan and we just gave everything. We knew if this was our last game we were going to go out with a bang.” The game was a tight battle from the very beginning as the Tigers and Huskies battled under the hot sun. Othello scored in the first half and maintained their lead in throughout, going into halftime 1-0.
BASIN SPORTS SCHEDULE: May 4-11, 2026
COLUMBIA BASIN — The postseason has begun for high school athletes in our area with teams gearing up to compete against the best of the best. Check out where our local teams are heading this week.