Championships are hard to defend. After the rest of the lot knows one team is the king, they do all they can to knock them off that hill.

The Berthoud High School (BHS) boys golf team remained at the top of the hill. The Spartans, led by junior Christian Foxworth’s 79, defended their Thompson R2J league championship at Marina Butte last week. Berthoud had six of the top seven individual scores and won the title going away.

Asked if there was any pressure entering the tourney to defend their league crown, Foxworth said he and the team just went out to play. “I didn’t think about it a whole lot, our team has the capabilities to bring that home, all of our players just brought their best to the tournament, and it was an enjoyable way to finish the season,” the junior, who qualified for state in 2020, said. “It solidifies what we’re doing as a program, we’ve improved tremendously, we keep improving, we’re going to keep playing our game.”

Standout sophomore Coyle Hagerty shot an 81 in the event, as did Graham McNair. Junior Landon Kuntz carded an 88 and senior Lochlan McNair, in the final round of his high career, turned in a respectable 87. David Sarmiento shot an 83 and Alex Pygot shot a 96 to round out the Berthoud team.

Playing their game, the Spartan sevensome each individually played Mariana Butte in a manner that best suited their game. Foxworth, working to establish early momentum, attacked the par-5 first, going driver and then 9-iron to hit the green and make birdie, which he did again on the par-4 second.

“I knew that was what I needed to was just attack the holes, and execute the shot, and think through the process of what I need to do,” Foxworth said of his play throughout the championship round.

From the beginning of their stewardship of the team, Coaches David Hunn and John Perry have maintained that Berthoud will be a force with which to be reckoned in the 3A ranks and the development of their team is evident, the back-to-back R2J titles providing a few stones for their crown.

“It means a lot, it shows our coaches are doing amazing work with us, bringing us from nowhere to something, our hard work is really paying off,” Hagerty said. Kuntz added, “I think it shows how much our coaches have changed out program, when they got here, we really worked and we’ve all improved a lot, we have coaches who know what they’re doing.”

The state qualifiers, Hagerty and Kuntz, were grateful of the work their coaches have put in while also mentioning that TPC Colorado, who affords Berthoud use some practice facilities days of the week have helped with the development. “TPC allowing us to be out here has improved every single one of our players drastically,” Hagerty said. TPC Colorado allows use of some practice facilities but has not hosted a high school tournament since the BHS girls team hosted an invitational on April 15, 2019.