VASSALBORO — Cole Anderson had company atop the leaderboard Saturday at Natanis Golf Course. A little too much for comfort, in fact.
The Camden Hills junior shared a piece of his third consecutive Class A state individual golf championship, tying Scarborough’s Anthony Burnham with a 2-under 70 on the Tomahawk layout as the two golfers were named co-champions.
“I think because Anthony and I are both super-competitive people, we’d both love to go out and play a playoff right now,” Anderson said. “If there’s anyone I’d be happy to share it with, it’s Anthony. He’s a good kid and I like him a lot, and he played well today.”
Anderson became just the third golfer in Class A history to win three straight individual state championships with a shot at a record fourth next fall. He joins Ryan Gay of Gardiner (2006-2008) and Kevin MacDonald of Morse (1990-1992) as a three-time champion.
Gay tied for all three of his titles, while Anderson won his first two outright.
“We’ll come back next year and try and complete the streak,” Anderson said. “I wasn’t thinking about it. I just wanted to win today.”
Elizabeth Lacognata of Scarborough was the girls state champion, while Cape Elizabeth’s Austin Legge won the Class B boys championship and Logan Thompson of Mattanawcook won the Class C boys state championship for the fourth consecutive season.
Thompson scored the day’s low round, carding a 6-under 66 on the Arrowhead course. His round contained three eagles, all on Arrowhead’s front nine, which were the final nine holes the senior played after starting on No. 10.
“After the front nine I had, it definitely surprised me,” Thompson said. “On No. 4, I threw a close one in on my second shot and made an eagle putt. That got my round going.”
Kents Hill School’s Mitchell Tarrio finished as the Class C runner-up, five shots behind Thompson. Carson Veilleux of Forest Hills tied Dirigo’s Jacob Gaudin for third.
Anderson played in a group with Lucas Roop of Gorham, the 2016 state runner-up, Thornton’s Amand Ouellette and Mt. Ararat’s Caleb Manuel. Every member of the foursome placed in the top five at day’s end. The emergence of Burnham came as a bit of a surprise, though Anderson felt as though his 70 wasn’t going to be enough to win.
“That’s the downside to a one-day tournament, is that you can’t tell who’s going to be in it and who isn’t going to be,” Anderson said. “You’ve just got to go out and try and go as low as possible. I did that well for the first seven (with four birdies) and then I faltered. I sort of knew, I had a gut feeling that it wasn’t going to be enough.”
Burnham said that playing in a different group from Anderson only helped his game.
“I played pretty steady with pars and birdies,” Burnham said. “I really focus on one shot at a time and keeping present-moment focus. As long as I do that, I can play my game.”
Legge, a junior, beat Cape Elizabeth teammate Ryan Collins by three strokes, joining Anderson and Burnham as the only golfers to play Tomahawk under par on Saturday.
Nokomis’ Sam Smestad finished third in Class B, five shots off the lead. Senior Cody Pellerin of Waterville tied for fifth, while Erskine teammates Aaron Pion and Conner Paine tied for seventh.
On the girls’ side, Lacognata blitzed through her front nine at 6-under before holding on, despite playing 4-over over the back nine.
“The back was definitely a haul,” said Lacognata, who spent Friday on the golf course practicing. “I knew once I hit the back nine, it was a game of everything I’ve been practicing and battling through the nerves. I was just trying to keep my standing in the position I knew I was in.”
Katie Dixon of Carrabec tied for fourth.
Travis Barrett — 621-5621
tbarrett@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @TBarrettGWC
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