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Sunny Hills’ boys golf team missed a spot in the CIF State championships last season by two strokes.
For Thursday’s CIF-SCGA Southern California regional final and state qualifier, Lancers coach Scott Enrico reminded his players of the heartbreak.
“I told the team to remember that feeling,” the coach said. “That was our motivation this year.”
Sunny Hills turned its pain into jubilation at Los Serranos Golf Club.
The Lancers captured the team title by an impressive 10 shots and crowned the individual champion in Cole Kim to qualify for the CIF State championships on June 3 at San Gabriel Country Club.
Kim, a senior who is committed to UC San Diego, tallied nine birdies to card a 9-under-par 65 to outdistance runner-up Carter Gaede of Loyola by three strokes.
Sunny Hills’ Jonathan Jeon (71) and Felipe Jikal (72) also shot under-par while Andrew Choi finished at even-par 74. Freshman Jansen Baek shot a 1-over-par 75 to help the Lancers post a 13-under-par score of 357 for their first regional crown since 2013.
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“I’m just so proud of all our guys,” Enrico said.
The Lancers outdistanced runner-up Classical Academy (367) and Los Alamitos (372), both of which also qualified for state.
Los Alamitos edged Santa Margarita by one stroke to reach state for the first time.
Anaheim Discovery Christian’s trio of Lorenzo Sinjem (68), Peter Oh (70) and Keita Yobiko (70) qualified for state as individuals.
Santa Margarita freshmen Oscar Liang and Dylan Zhang shot 72 and narrowly missed advancing.
Mater Dei’s Gianni Floriani, the CIF-SS individual champion, carded a 1-under-par 73.
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