MISSION – Echo’s Tyler Hawkins protected his lead on the second and last day of the Classes 3A-1A Special District 5 boys golf tournament at Wildhorse, but Umatilla came from nine strokes down to beat Echo 704-706 for the team championship.

Umatilla began the day trailing 346-352 and was trailing by nine after the front nine holes Tuesday, coach Tony Villanueva said.

“Michael (Powell, fourth place) and Steve (Williams, second) had outstanding backs, and Tavis (Johnson, tied for 10th) and Derek (Baker, tied for sixth) played pretty consistent,” the coach added.

“It was just that everybody wanted it and on the way up here, we talked about, ‘We’re going to get it done. We’re going to get Echo,’ ” said the sophomore Williams. “It’s been close between us every time we played. We knew it was going to come down to the wire this year in districts, and it did.”

For the second year in a row, the young Hawkins was crowned a champion and a Viking program had won its first-ever district title. Last year, the Umatilla girls team won a championship.

Hawkins, a sophomore this year, shot a two-day total of 156, turning in an 81 Tuesday. For the tournament, he was 13 strokes ahead of runners-up Stephen Stenberg of Horizon Christian and Williams.

It’s Hawkins’ seventh victory in eight events this year, but Tuesday was just a little tougher than Monday for him and the rest of the Cougars.

“The wind was pretty bad,” Hawkins said. “I really couldn’t get anything going. I had quite a few penalty strokes. One of them was like, I hit a ball and I couldn’t find it, and it turns out that it was right next to the green, so I would have picked up at least two strokes there, maybe three.”

Hawkins said a secret to his success has been keeping his cool during play.

“Really, there’s no competition besides Dakota Hull (of Enterprise), who’s in a different district,” Hawkins said.

Hull scored a 151 to win the individual title and lead Enterprise to the team championship in the Special District 4 event, held simultaneously with SD5’s and three more tournaments at Wildhorse.

“I don’t know if we just missed some easy shots,” Shepherd said. “Umatilla played good; I’ve got to give them credit. Steve Williams shot real well for them. He was huge.”

So was Powell, who shot a 174.

“It’s wonderful, you know,” Powell said. “Senior year, it’s my last opportunity, and going out not just with my own medal but a district title as well, and we plan on going home with a state title as well.”

Echo freshman Jacob Eby finished fifth with a 177.

Umatilla and Echo have qualified for the May 14-15 OSAA State Championships at Stone Creek in Oregon City.

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FINAL RESULTS

Team scores – 1, Umatilla 704; 2, Echo 706; 3, Horizon Christian 732; 4, Condon-Wheeler 765; 5, Heppner 789; 6, Grant Union 901

Individual scores – 1, Tyler Hawkins, Echo, 156; 2, Stephen Stenberg, Horizon Christian, 169; 2, Steve Williams, Umatilla, 169; 4, Michael Powell, Umatilla, 174; 5, Jacob Eby, Echo, 177

Other state-qualifying players – Taylor Hodges, Heppner, 178; Josh Barnett, Condon-Wheeler, 182

Condon-Wheeler scores – Barnett 182, Drew Messenger 187, Nik Berenson 196, Tim Potter 200, Tyler George 248

Echo scores – Hawkins 156, Eby 177, Colter McCallum 181, Ryan Ramos 192, Cody Marcum 202

Heppner scores – Hodges 178, Joe Pranger 193, Matt McCabe 204, Tomas Elguezabal 220, Eddie Ramirez 226

Nixyaawii scores – Dion Denny 210, Ian Sampson 305

Umatilla scores – Williams 169, Powell 174, Derek Baker 178, Tavis Johnson 183, Anthony Anderson 196

GREATER OREGON LEAGUE – McLoughlin broke out of a first-day tie for second place with Ontario and secured a berth in the Class 4A Championships at Stone Creek with a 736, finishing 62 strokes behind champion La Grande.

Sophomore Jonathan Stone led the charge for the young Pioneers with a fourth-place score of 170.

“I was playing pretty good today, but I could have done way better,” Stone said. “The wind kind of hurt me today. I just tried my best.”

Junior T.J. Halseth, the oldest Pioneer, shot a 182 to finish ninth. Also for the Pioneers, Chris Brown had a 192, and Jimmy Roeder shot a 198.

“We’re pretty excited,” seventh-year Mac-Hi coach Delbert Leighty said. “We have a really young team this year. I’m happy to get them there so they can get some experience because we don’t have any seniors, so this will be a great experience for next year, and I think we’re going to be pretty competitive next year.

Junior T.J. Halseth, the oldest Pioneer, shot a 182 to finish ninth.

Tim Hall and Taylor Evans of La Grande shot 161 and 162 for first and second, respectively.

Ontario (746) and Baker (762) rounded out team standings.

CLASSES 4A-1A SPECIAL?DISTRICT?7 – Heppner and La Grande were the only two teams in this girls district, so both have advanced to the state meet May 14-15 at Eagle Ridge in Madras.

Scores were not available, but La Grande won the team district championship. Jenna Bowman and Maggie Armato of Heppner took fourth and fifth individually.

The girls Special District 8 tournament also was held, but final results were not available.