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The Washington High School boys’ golf team had two goals going into the season. Both of them have been accomplished.

The Pam Pack won the Eastern Plains Conference title last week. Then, this past Monday, they finished third in the Class 2A East Regional golf tournament at River Bend County Club to qualify for the state finals. That event runs this Monday and Tuesday at Pinehurst No. 6 in Pinehurst.

“Well, I mean, obviously, we were super excited,” Washington coach Jim Kozuch said. “This year, we weren’t 100% sure where we would stand at the end of the year. So we created some small goals this year.

“The first one was to win our conference championship, because we’re a couple of years removed from winning a conference championship. So we did that. And then the other goal that we had was, we knew that Pinehurst, No. 6, was the host for the state championship this year. So our goal was to do everything we could to make it to Pinehurst.

“And yeah, we were thrilled. We snuck in there by two strokes, but we were only five strokes off a second place.”

Washington finished with a team score of 339, two ahead of John A. Holmes and six shots behind East Duplin. Princeton won the event with a 315.

Senior Oliver Thomas earned the top spot for Washington with a 77, four strokes behind winner Jackson King of North Johnston. Other Washington golfers who competed were freshman Cutler Lee (17th, 84), junior Garrett Hudson (33rd, 89), junior Gabe Niederhauser (33rd, 89) and senior Ayden Yates (47th, 97).

“So Oliver Thomas, he was our ace,” Kozuch said. “And basically, from spring break on, he came in extremely focused and just mentally prepared. And I saw him out on the golf course on Easter, and he had shot his lowest round of his life out there. And then the last two out of three matches, he shot his personal lows.

“And then going into regionals, he shot his lowest round of the year at regionals. So I couldn’t be any more proud of him. And he put the team on his back, and he got us there.”

Kozuch said the wet conditions from the rain that fell before competition on Monday played to the Pam Pack’s favor since they’ve had to handle that before. The only thing left was to focus on playing and see what happens.

“It’s funny, because we joke around and we say bad conditions, advantage Pam Pack,” Kozuch said. “And it’s just a joke that we always have. But we always practice whether it’s nasty out or if it’s nice out.

“So we were never gonna blame the conditions. And they were fine out there, to be honest. We had a good idea where we stood. But I think at the beginning of the round, people were looking at (the live scoring app) too much, and it was kind of affecting our play.

“I don’t think the back nine holes, I don’t think the guys were looking at it much. They were just trying to go down there and shoot as low as they could.”

The team has practiced all week and will leave Sunday for the states. The goal is to do as well as possible and see what happens next — sort of like in the regionals.

“The difference is between our regular season and the postseason is now the yardages are further,” Kozuch said. “So, in practice this week, we’re playing from the tips, the furthest point on the golf course. And we’re just trying to look at some of the yardages that are at the course. And trying to match them to where we can over at Washington Yacht & Country Club.

“And I give a shoutout to the golf course. The golf course has been really great to us this year. So they’ve really been accommodating, let our guys out there, whatever they possibly can. And just we take it every day, we’ll take it day by day.

“We’re going to the state championship. We’re trying to set realistic expectations. We know we’re playing with the best golfers in the state now. And we just want to go out there and take all the pressure off and have some fun.”