Lake Placid’s Grady Draper chips the ball on the seventh hole at the Ticonderoga Country Club on May 27. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

TICONDEROGA — The Lake Placid golf program’s winning streak kept on rolling on May 26 with the school’s fifth consecutive Section VII title win at the Ticonderoga Country Club. On May 27, the boys locked up three out of the nine spots to compete in the state championships at the Mark Twain Golf Course in Elmira from June 4-6.

In the team competition, the lowest four scores from six players representing each squad are added up. Lake Placid finished with a 336 total, which edged out the second-place Peru Nighthawks by six strokes. Saranac Lake finished in 10th place with a team score of 459.

Brady Tremblay, a junior, led the Blue Bombers with a 6-over par 78 to take second place overall after the first day of the 36-hole tournament. Peru’s Keegan Smith (72) was the only golfer ahead of Tremblay.

Chris Byrne (85), Grady Draper (86) and Carver Bell (87) all finished in the top 11 to guide Lake Placid to the sectional title. All four Blue Bomber golfers advanced to the group of 24 second round.

“It was kind of unexpected, with Carver Bell playing as well as he did as a seventh-grader,” Lake Placid coach John Glinski said. “(Bell) was a big surprise. He had a great year and you need four scores and I knew my first three were going to be solid players. But to pick up Carver and have him play well as a seventh-grader, is pretty unusual.”

Lake Placid's Carver Bell puts for par on the 16th hole during the second day of the Section VII golf tournament on May 27 at the Ticonderoga Country Club. (News photo — Parker O’Brien)

Although the Blue Bombers’ Alex Wright and Sebil Cecunjanin didn’t contribute to the team scoring, the pair had a solid day on the course. Wright shot a 103 and Cecunjanin shot a 119.

Glinski said despite having a short season, all of his players have shown improvement this year.

“My first three definitely have done that,” Glinski said. “My two players at the end of my lineup have done a nice job too. I was happy to win the league title and I’m happy to win the sectional title.”

Despite being six strokes behind, Tremblay put a lot of pressure on the Nighthawks’ Smith on the second day of the tournament.

After the first nine holes, Tremblay totaled a 37, while Smith carded a 40. On the first three holes on the back nine, Tremblay evened things up when he shot a bogey, a par and a birdie. Smith had a bogey, double bogey and a par.

On the final six holes, Smith outshot Tremblay by six strokes to win the individual title. Both Tremblay and Smith carded identical 78s on May 27. Smith finished with a two-day score of 150, while Tremblay had a 156 to finish in second place.

Byrne finished the tournament in fifth place with a 36-hole total of 165 and Draper fired a score of 168 to tie AuSable Valley’s Porter Goodman for seventh place.

With eight state-qualifier spots already claimed, the ninth and final spot came with a bit of excitement with Bell, Moriah’s Logan Gilbo and Peru’s Liam Clark all tied up at 171.

The trio played a one-hole playoff match on the tenth hole to claim the last state qualifier spot. Gilbo recorded a birdie in the playoff hole to become the ninth qualifier. Bell was named the alternate state qualifier.