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One stroke.
That's what Bingham High School girls' golf coach Liz Conry couldn't stop repeating.
One stroke.
By one stroke her Miners won their fourth straight Class 5A state crown Monday afternoon at Glen Eagle Golf Course in Syracuse. They edged a deeply talented Davis Darts team, 318 to 317.
"That was pretty intense," Conry said. "I thought we had lost by one or two strokes until I saw the numbers go up."
Conry, in her sixth year leading the powerhouse program, is superstitious. She doesn't like to check scores before they go up. She'll check her players' scorecards after nine holes, but after that, she leaves it to fate.
Fate smiled on the Miners in a down-to-the-wire matchup against the second-place Darts. Headlined by senior star and San Diego State commit Sirene Blair (70) and junior Sam Crawford (74), Bingham completed the four-peat.
"Everyone went into an uproar," Conry said. "It gets better and better the more you win. So many lessons are learned. They work so hard for me all the time."
Conry used senior Alexa Martin as an example. Martin, one of four seniors on this year's Bingham squad, came to the program as a sophomore, who, as Conry explained, "could barely hit a golf ball."
She turned in an 89 on Monday afternoon, the third-best score on the team, to help continue the Miners' streak of success.
"To see growth and development, to see her go to [her] golf bag and trust in her swing and pick out, to see her score count as one of our top four is amazing," Conry said.
Blair moves on from the program as a champion more than a handful of times over, both part of a team and individually, and that, Conry said, will be tough for a program she expects to enter rebuilding mode next season.
"We've been on a high for four years," she said. "I think we'll be taking the backseat next season."
But they'll be charging for No. 5.
Twitter: @chriskamrani —
Class 5A state tournament
Team points • Bingham 318, Davis 317, Weber 302, Alta 301, Viewmont 293, Lone Peak 289, American Fork 270, Fremont 265, Layton 263, Copper Hills 223, Pleasant Grove 209, Brighton 201, Hunter 193, Cottonwood 165, Granger 111, Taylorsville 101
Top 10 individuals
1. • Sirene Blair, Bingham, 70
T-2. • Sam Crawford, Bingham, 74
T-2. • Jessica Sloot, Davis, 74
4. • Madi Rooker, Alta, 75
T-5. • Haylee Chugg, Weber, 78
T-5. • Cobair Collinsworth, Brighton , 78
T-7. • Laura Gerner, Davis, 79
T-7. • Hanah Hall, Viewmont, 79
T-9. • Bayleigh Woodland, Weber, 84
T-9. • Malerie Jensen, Alta, 84