They didn’t complete this season with another perfect record, but thanks to two dynamic golfers and a solid group of underclassmen, the Buckfield golf team is making a return trip to the Class C state team championships this week.

“Not everyone came back,” said coach Ryan Wilkins of his Buckfield team that went 10-0 last season. “We were younger, greener at the bottom of the lineup, but everyone held their own and did well to qualify for states again.”

At the East-West Conference championships at Lakewood Country Club in Skowhegan last week, David Busch and Matt Lowell shot 76 and 80 respectively to lead the team to a qualifying spot.

“Last year we surprised ourselves and some other teams a bit and finished ahead of a few teams,” said Wilkins. “This year, I think as a team we can be competitive again.”

Added to the lineup of Busch, Lowell and Dylan Hall are freshmen Ethan Jones and Allen Smith, who have come out of nowhere this season, according to Wilkins.

Near miss…again

The Poland High School Knights are still trying to figure out what they need to do to get into the state Class B team tournament after coming up just short for a second consecutive year.

“If you had told me before our qualifier that we would go out and shoot a 320 as a team score, I would have guessed we would be in,” said coach Dan Novak. “Honestly, everyone played well and that is a great score.”

The team score is the aggregate score of the four lowest golfers of the five varsity players in the qualifier. Poland golfers averaged an even 80 strokes and missed qualifying by two shots. Falmouth and Cape Elizabeth took the top two spots with matching 303’s, while Greely and Wells tied for the third spot with 218. Using the fifth golfer as a tiebreaker, Greely was selected as the third WMC school.

“The thing is, our fifth golfer was better than both of theirs,” said Novak. “If we can pick up two shots anywhere in the top four, our fifth would have put us into the tournament.”

Individually, Keegan Fennessy will represent the school at the individual state tournament on Oct. 13. Fennessy beat the lowest qualifying number in recent memory (77) during his round.

“Two years ago the cutoff for individuals was an 80, last year it was 79 and this year a 77,” said Novak. “There is so much talent out there this year.”

Poland is still undefeated in regular season play, as well, riding a 20-match streak into two matches this week against Gray-New Gloucester and Sacopee Valley.