At the beginning of the week, the boys golf team placed sixth in the state championship. Junior Caden Christopherson placed fifth; the second highest ranking in Perry history, with coach John Lowery’s own son finishing in fourth, eight years ago.

Coach Lowery began the season with hopes of placing in the top three. He commented on the small defeat, “seventy percent of practice needs to be putting and chipping… and we did not putt very well on the first day… that was the main difference from us being in the top three.”,

There were some significant victories, on a personal level, junior Connor Brown shot his “best score all year, probably career best”, a 79, according to Lowery.

Brown acknowledges that there was room for improvement saying, “I’m proud with my performance, but I left a few shots out there, I could have putted better. I am excited for next year, getting another chance to play with the same people.”

Christopherson started out shooting a 77. He then improved for the second day and finished out in fifth, with a total of 66 strokes. “I knew the first day was about the worst I could do so I was still confident,” he claimed. Caden is selected for All State and Lowery is confident he “will be number one in the Chandler district.”

Junior Ryan Macpherson, who has played in the number two spot all year, shot a 77 and then a 72, finishing twenty-second in state. He commented on this year’s performance saying, “I am really proud of Caden, especially on the second day, as for the rest of us I believe we could have performed better than we did, but we fought hard and climbed to a respectable place to finish off.”

On Tuesday, the Pumas turned it around and ended up with the fourth lowest score. “I just realized I had to do something special… I had one of the best scores that day,” Christopherson stated. He shot seven birdies and four under par, finishing for the team total of 609 strokes.

Fortunately for the team, there are no seniors leaving, giving them an opportunity to continue growing and practicing. Next year, the state tournament will be at the same course, which means this year was just a warmup for these golfers.