A great season of spring sports was capped off last week when our golf teams competed against the best of the best at Twin City Country Club and came away with great results. Our girls won the Class A – AAA state championship while our boys captured fourth.
 
"It's amazing how difficult Class A – AAA golf is," Head Coach Jason Rutledge said. "Case in point is that the 7^th place team in our division would've taken first in Class AAAA."
 
Regardless, while other girls' squads packed a full team of four, Coach Rutledge simply threw out his two aces – freshman Molly Spector and sophomore Brooke Benedict. Spector responded with two-day scores of 72, 68, good for runner-up medalist, while Benedict shot 77 and 82.
 
Rutledge's combo had a four stroke lead after Day 1 and ended up holding off Wesleyan, Darlington, and Prince Avenue with a two shot win. 
 
"When you have a lead after the first day, it's really tough to stay in the moment and do what you need to do knowing that everyone's chasing you," Coach Rutledge added. 
 
The boys also had a great finish after a not so hot Day 1, as they improved from seventh place to fourth, finishing only four shots out of first place. Logan Skaggs – a freshman – ended as runner-up medalist as well; he shot 68, 77 to lead the Bears.
 
HI also got a great second day performance out of James Carper, who shot a season best 72 to boost the team. Other contributors included Matt Binney, Nick McKay, Lucas Tiliakos, Griffin Moore, and Jack Graham.
 
"One thing that's interesting about golf is that the event is held without fanfare and with no crowd support, as it's in the middle of the work week. You have to hand it to both the girls and the boys for doing what they do simply because they love what they do."
 
Looking at the whole picture, Coach Rutledge also gave love to his assistants – Will Lozier, Jim Griffin, Nick Perrotta, and Desiree Elliott.
 
The golfers put an exclamation point on an excellent spring semester, where HI crowned two state champs in track (Colt McNamara in the discus and Kingston Whitty in the high jump). Also, baseball advanced to the Sweet 16, both tennis teams went to the Elite 8, boys' track finished 10^th, girls' soccer roared into the Final Four while the boys went Sweet 16, and the girls lacrosse team also advanced out of the region into state.