A9
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2019
SEASIDE SEAGULLS
SPRING 2019 | TRACK • BOYS GOLF • GIRLS GOLF
Golfers seek third state title in six years
man, and the rest of the state soon
will.
“Hopefully it doesn’t put too
much pressure on him, because he
is just a freshman,” Poetsch said.
“He’s played some golf, but he’s
only 15. He’s pretty level-headed
though.”
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
T
he Seaside Gulls may have
come up short in their bid
for state championships
in football and basketball, but the
school year ain’t over yet.
Seaside has won one state title in
a boys sport in each of the last fi ve
school years, and the Gulls don’t
intend on breaking that tradition.
Their best chance this spring will
be in boys golf, where the Gulls
head into the year ranked No. 1 in a
preseason coaches poll.
We all know preseason polls
aren’t worth much, but this one
appears to be fairly accurate.
Seaside opened its season March
20 by posting a 313 team score, its
best round of golf since the 2015
state championship season.
Head coach Jim Poetsch led the
Gull golfers to state titles in 2014
and 2015. In his other job as an
assistant coach in boys basketball,
Poetsch has four championship
rings over the last fi ve years. He’s
hoping to add one for the thumb this
spring.
Seaside recently added a big
victory in their annual trip to The
Dalles, where the Gulls defended
their tournament title from last sea-
son and posted their best team score
(335) at The Dalles since 2006, and
better than scores posted by their
state championship teams.
There will be challengers
(Marist, maybe Cascade), but the
Gulls are once again defi nite con-
tenders for a state title.
“Potentially this could be one of
THE STATE
Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian
Two of the state’s best golfers of the present are also the future of the Seaside boys golf team — Carson Kawasoe,
left, and Curtis Kunde.
our top three teams,” Poetsch said.
“This team is probably better than
our fi rst state championship team.”
Score-wise, Seaside’s best year
was 2006.
This year’s team may not match
the team scores posted in ‘06,
“because I scheduled some tough
courses,” Poetsch said. “(Emerald)
Valley’s a tough course and that’s
where state is. We’d rather get
them ready for that, than go out and
shoot a bunch of low scores on easy
courses.”
THE GOLFERS
The Gulls lost their top golfer
from last season — Jackson
Kunde — to graduation.
Out goes Kunde, in comes
freshman Carson Kawasoe. And
Seaside’s best golfer at The Dalles
was sophomore Curtis Kunde.
This team is already great, the
golfers are young, and the season
has barely started.
“We lost Jackson and replaced
him with Carson,” Poetsch said.
“We didn’t lose a step, and the
Seaside young, but
ready to score points
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
The Seaside track team
undoubtedly owns the top
girls’ thrower in the state at
the 4A level.
In addition to winning
the Cowapa League title
in the discus and shot put
last year, senior Gretchen
Hoekstre is also the defend-
ing state champion in the
shot, second in the discus.
But Jeff Kilday’s team
has much more than that.
The Gulls are in a
slight rebuilding phase,
with seven freshmen on
their 20-athlete roster for
the boys. There’s another
six freshmen on the girls’
roster.
For the boys, Seaside’s
tradition of strong 800-
meter runners should con-
tinue this year with junior
Levi Card, who took third
in last year’s league meet,
won by the Gulls’ Rafi
Sibony.
Sibony — fourth in the
state meet last year — has
graduated, after carrying
on the tradition started by
Brett Willyard, state cham-
pion in the 800 in 2013.
The Gulls had two top-
eight fi nishers in 2014, and
Jackson Januik won three
straight championships in
the 800 from 2015-17.
In the sprints, Seaside
showed it will have one of
the Cowapa’s fastest run-
ners in sophomore Henry
Garvin, who recently took
sixth in the Cotton Invita-
tional behind several big-
school runners.
The Gulls, however,
will likely get most of their
points in the throws.
Senior Parker Conrad
David Ball/Seaside Signal
Senior Gretchen Hoekstre is the defending state champion
in the shot put.
and juniors Derrick Ben-
nett and Luke Nelson will
be capable of placing at or
near the top in every meet.
First place will be a reg-
ular occurrence for throw-
ers on the girls’ side.
Already signed to com-
pete at Brigham Young
University at the colle-
giate level, Hoekstre will
likely add to her collection
of fi rst-place medals this
year.
Meanwhile, Lilli Tay-
lor will be a great addition
for the Seaside throwers, in
addition to any other events
the talented freshman may
try.
kids worked hard all summer, so I
think we’re in pretty good shape.
We’re going to be right in there.”
Rounding out the Seaside’s top
fi ve, he said, are “Samson Sibony
and Connor Merrell, Mason Sha-
mion and Curtis from last year,
and Carson. Any of them can beat
the others on any day.”
Kawasoe, son of Astoria golf
pro John Kawasoe, is the golfer
who will make Seaside con-
tenders for the next three years.
Locals certainly know the fresh-
“Statewide, Marist (now Class
4A) won the 5A state title last year,
and they have three good golfers
back,” Poetsch said. “Stayton and
Cascade have a lot of good kids
back. Woodburn was in the 5A
tournament last year and they’ve
dropped (to 4A), and they have all
fi ve kids back. And Mazama has
four of its fi ve back. The Cowapa
League is not going to go 1-2-5 at
state like last year.”
Valley Catholic won the 2018
state title, ahead of second-place
Scappoose, and Seaside was fi fth.
The good teams will usually
step to the front of the pack by
midseason.
Until then, “You just have to
start reading papers from around
the state, and hope that they put
their scores in,” Poetsch said.
“Usually by the halfway point
of the season, we’ve had enough
tournaments to fi gure it out, but
right now it’s guesswork.”
For now, “I know we’re good
and I know Marist is good. And
unless some other teams got
good over the summer, I think
those are the two teams to beat
right now. There’s always one
or two teams that come out of
nowhere.”
More golfers should equal
more success for Lady Gulls
By GARY HENLEY
The Daily Astorian
Rarely does a team nearly
triple its number of athletes
from one year to the next,
but that’s what Mike Verhulst
and the Seaside girls golf
program has done.
The Lady Gulls fi n-
ished the 2018 season with
just three golfers in the dis-
trict tournament — not even
enough to score in the team
standings. Seaside and three
other schools fi nished with
incomplete team scores.
Through three weeks of
the 2019 spring season, Ver-
hulst had eight golfers on his
roster.
For smaller schools such
as Seaside, fi elding a com-
plete team in golf is some-
times half the battle. And
now that the Gulls have
plenty to score as a team,
anything is possible.
The three returners are
all back. Sophomore Tristyn
McFadden — who entered
the 2018 season as Seaside’s
No. 1 golfer as just a fresh-
men — is back, and scoring
well.
In last year’s Cowapa
League tournament, McFad-
den fi red a 107 for Seaside’s
top score. A week later in the
district tournament, she shot
a 108 on the fi rst day and 102
on the second — the Gulls’
best score by 27 strokes.
The fi rst time out in 2019,
McFadden shot a 96 in a
tournament at Tillamook,
where she parred two of the
fi rst fi ve holes and fi nished
the front nine with a 47.
Individually, she fi nished
third, and more importantly,
the Gulls were just two
strokes behind Astoria for
third in the team standings.
In the same tourna-
ment, junior Caitlin Hillman
Gary Henley/The Daily Astorian
Tristyn McFadden is hoping to be on target for the Seaside
girls golf team this season.
had a 114 — also topping
her scores from the district
tournament.
Junior Sydney Rapp
is Seaside’s third varsity
returner.
Rounding out the 2019
Seaside roster will be senior
Ella Eronen, junior Frida
Ruff, and freshmen Emma
Arden, Paris Johnson, Anna
Knoch and Elise Seppa.
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