By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Golf, West Seattle Wildcats style.

This season the team experienced some good success, with a win for the boys team over league power O'Dea for the first time in at least a few years.

The Wildcats also posted a 7-2 league finish that was the best for some time, too, and, the good times on the fairways, greens, rough, sand bunkers and tees continue for two of its golfers who just qualified past the Metro Golf Tournament at the West Seattle Golf Course to the district tourney happening in Snohomish on Monday.

"Only Kevin Cuddy is a senior, and graduates," said Wildcats' coach, Velko Vitalich. "Everybodyelse comes back."

So the success should continue next season for the Wildcats, with the majority of the team coming back including Jack Page, Alex Nguyen and Tony Flores, who altogether in this Metro tourney helped the sixth place finish happen out of 15 3A Metro schools.

Also returning for the Wildcats, and largely helping the team notch that top six finish are the top two players for them, being Zach Gibson and Bailey Fuentes.

Both Gibson and Fuentes golfed well at the Metro tourney, with Gibson taking 10th place overall and Fuentes 14th.
It was as expected, really, as both Gibson and Fuentes advanced past the league tournament last season to districts, where Fuentes notched 16th and Gibson 19th.

So this round of golf, so to speak, wasn't something that Gibson nor Fuentes, for that matter, really worried about not getting past.

"I knew as long as I putted consistently, I'd be fine," said Gibson.

But districts was another story for Gibson, not too far from being a sad story.

"It was pretty close for me going to state last year," said Gibson, who shot the best score of the five-member Wildcats' team, with a 79 the first day of 18 holes on Tuesday, and then finishing off with a 77 on day two, for a two-day total of 156. "The top 23 district qualifiers go to state."
So these two guys are right back where they were last year, hoping to improve on last year's state finishes of 44th for Fuentes and 45th for Gibson.
The two are friendly to each other out on the course, but are they friendly rivals?

"We like to joke around," said Fuentes, laughing, who shot a 78 on day one of the league tournament Tuesday and a 79 Thursday for a 157 total. "But, yeah, it's friendly, we want to help each other improve."
Both Gibson and Fuentes shot the 18 holes fairly consistent, that is, speaking of a number of shots to make each ball in the cup.
Gibson shot most consistently, getting a four or a five only score, per hole, on all 18 holes, in day two.
"I hit a lot greens in regulation," said Gibson, who was saying that he would, on a par 4, for example, make it onto the green in two shots, leaving him two shots to put it into the hole.
Of Fuentes, who is his friend a lot more than a rival, despite the twos' very closeness of scores at state last year, one place apart, and also very near each others' scores at districts, too. They were only four places apart.

"He's solid, he doesn't make many mistakes," said Gibson, a junior.
On day two, from holes one to 18, Gibson scored, for the front nine, 5,4,5,5,4,4,4,4,5, and the back nine 4,4,5,4,5,4,5,4,4.

Fuentes shot less consistent, but also, to his credit, he made a couple holes in three shots, unlike Gibson.
For day two, Fuentes shot, for the front nine, 5,4,3,5,4,4,5,4,6, and, for the back, 4,3,5,4,4,4,5,5,5.
Fuentes, who was the No. 1 golfer for the team all season, made note of a nice finish for himself among the 15 schools and 90 golfers in the Metro League.

"Going into the league tournament today, I was ranked eighth among all the golfers," said Fuentes.
So, a nice accomplishment there, as well as, likely, being medalist a few times this past season, which means Fuentes scored best of the teams battling in a regular season duel.

In the Metro Tournament, also, Cuddy went through a one-hole playoff to try and get the 36th spot into the district touranment but could not, losing to a Roosevelt Roughrider golfer.

But Cuddy has enjoyed his time as a golfer for the Wildcats, and will cruise on out of the golf scene with good memories left behind.

"I wish my teammates good luck next year. It's been a fun journey," said Cuddy, who shot an 87 on day one and an 81 on day two for a 168 total.

Vitalich noted that freshman Nguyen and sophomore Page got a good taste of tournament action as younger players on the team.

"They know what it's like now," said Vitalich.

Nguyen shot an 89 on the first day and an 85 for the second day, for a 174 two days of golf while Page shot a 89 the first day and a 90 the second for a 179 total.

"It was fun, playing with everyone, the different schools," said Page, admitting the biggest problem of his game was the greens game.
"My putting wasn't very good," said Page.

Also Vitalich noted that Flores shot a 91 on the first day, but followed up on day two with a 79 for a 170 total. Flores, on day two, started with a six on the first hole but then shot a four, and a three and then fours' and fives' with one six-shot recorded on the final 15 holes.

"He kept his head," said Vitalich.

All and all, for the golfers, including Vitalich's lone girl who qualified for the Metro tourney, freshman Berit Sytebo.
"She's our little freshman girl," said Vitalich. "She is the only one who made it to the league tournament from our girls team."

Alex Pascua participated in the girls tournament for Chief Sealth.

For the West Seattle Wildcats, it was a good learning experience and a lot of things to grow on for the team going into next season.

"It was an excellent tournament," said Vitalich. "The kids grinded, and worked hard."