VASSALBORO — Gavin Dugas’ slump ended within the first three holes of his round on Natanis’ Tomahawk Course at the high school individual golf championships on Saturday.
With a birdie on his second hole and a par save on his third, Dugas got his groove back and won the Class B state title by three shots with a 1-under 71.
Logan Thompson of Mattanawcook won the Class C title, shooting even par to win by one stroke over Winthrop’s Adam Hachey, who was runner-up for the second year in a row. Bangor’s Drew Powell and Nick Mazurek of Oceanside were co-champions in Class A with matching 72s. Hashilla Rivai of Thornton Academy won the girls’ championship by five strokes with the lowest score of the day, a two-under 70.
Dugas, a senior, collected two birdies and a par save on his first four holes en route to a strong front nine.
Dugas opened the shotgun start with par on the par-3 fourth, then cleared the trees with his drive on the par-4 fifth’s dogleg left to put himself in position to for birdie.
“I think that’s what got me going was the birdie on five, my second hole,” Dugas said. “I drove it right next to the green, got up and down. So that loosened my confidence a little.”
On the par-4 sixth, Dugas had to save par with a difficult third shot.
“My feet were in the bunker and the ball was above me in the grass,” he said. “I almost chipped it in. That would probably be my best par save.”
He went on to birdie the par-3 seventh and the par-5 first. He bogeyed two par-4s, 17 and 2, on his back nine, but minimized the damage.
“I had a good front nine,” he said. “No doubles (bogeys). That’s the key.”
“I definitely wasn’t completely confident today. The past few weeks have not been that great,” added Dugas, who has struggled since winning the KVAC Shootout on Oct. 2. “I was in a bad streak the past few weeks, but it was really good to get this one.”
Reese McFarlane of Cape Elizabeth finished second with a 74. Camden Hills teammates Drew Holt and Drew Long fired 76 to tie for third. Conor Drouin and Eric Dugas, Gavin’s younger brother, tied for fifth at 78.
Carter Pearl of MCI (85) tied for 13th. Gardiner’s Brady Smith (89) finished 21st.
On the Arrowhead Course, Hachey finished strong with birdies on his 16th and 17th holes to make a late run at Thompson and finish at 1-over 73.
“I was two-under the last four holes. I was just cruising,” said Hachey, a senior who helped lead the Ramblers to the Class C team title last week. “I went out with the attitude I’m just going to have fun today, and it went well.”
Cameron Clark of Houlton and Fort Fairfield’s Robbie Watson, the defending champion, tied for third at 76. Winthrop’s Anthony Owens (79) and Taylor Morang (80) were fifth and sixth. Tripp Libby of Madison (81) tied for seventh.
Rivai got off to a good start on Arrowhead with birdies on her third and fourth holes to quickly put the pressure on the rest of her foursome, which included 2013 champion and this year’s co-runner-up Bailey Plourde of Lincoln Academy and Lawrence’s Kelsie Dessent, the reigning Maine junior amateur champion.
“I think it was mainly because of my approach shots. I was just sticking it to the pin every single hole, so that really helped,” said Rivai, an international student from Indonesia who rose from the No. 4 to No. 1 golfer on Thornton’s co-ed team during the course of the season.
“(Rivai) was awesome to watch play,” Dessent said. “It was enjoyable to watch her play. I knew coming into this that she was probably going to be the one.”
Dessent, who finished in sixth with an 11-over 83, ran into trouble on the greens early.
“I just couldn’t putt. It was mostly putting (early on) and then I got to the back nine and I just gave up on myself,” she said.
Plourde and Jenna Hallet of Presque Isle tied for second five shots back of Rivai. Erin Holmes of Greeley and Thornton’s Jordan LaPlume tied for fourth (76).
In Class A at Tomahawk, Powell and Mazurek held off Chris Billings of Cheverus by one stroke. Drew Kane of Scarborough (75) was fourth, Falmouth’s Craig Smith (77) sixth.
Cony’s Thomas Foster (81) tied for 13th. Dylan Burton of Messalonskee (84) tied for 17th.
Randy Whitehouse — 621-5638
rwhitehouse@mainetoday.com
Twitter: @RAWmaterial33
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