VASSALBORO — If the Arizona Beverage Company needs a pitchman for its Arnold Palmer, the soft drink named in honor of the golf great, Greely High School senior Andrew Klein is a candidate.

“Best drink of all time. I call it birdie juice. I cracked it open, and made a birdie on the next shot,” Klein said of that important sip of the half iced tea-half lemonade on the 10th hole Friday at Natanis Golf Course’s Tomahawk course. “I only drank one today (during the round), but I had one on the bus up here. They’re pretty sugary.”

On a day the wind played havoc with shots throughout the round, Klein was consistent. Klein shot plus-5 77, giving him a two-stroke win for the Class A individual title. Klein’s was a piece of an overall strong effort from Greely, which shot a team score of 322, beating second-place Scarborough by 14 shots to claim the Class A golf championship. It was the first title in Class A since 1990 for the Rangers, and first since winning the Class B championship in 1995.

“I’ve been waiting for years for this moment. I texted my friend who’s currently in college who we played with last year, who really wanted to win. I told him today was for him. Ben Rosenthal, it’s for him today,” Klein said. “It’s my senior year, I came out here knowing this was my last round in these four years, and I wanted it to count.”

Remy Levin, a Bonny Eagle junior, shot 88 to take the girls title.

“The wind really made it the worst. It wasn’t too bad, but I didn’t play my best,” Levin said.

Peter Malia of Scarborough and Bennett Berg of Portland tied for second place on the boys side, two shots behind Klein. Ruth Weeks of Greely took second place in the girls competition, one shot behind Levin.

Greely’s depth propelled the Rangers to the title. With Klein leading the way, Greely placed four boys in the top 10 individual standings. DJ Kenney tied for fourth place, Connor Albert placed ninth, and Nick Montminy tied for 10th with Cony’s Kyle Douin.

Levin pointed to the 6-foot putt she made for birdie on the ninth hole as one of her key shots of the round. Like Levin, Klein said the wind made the course challenging.

“The wind was howling everywhere. A couple holes it was playing 20, 30 yards long or short. It all depended on where you were. It really had an impact on the game. A lot of scores were high today,” Klein said. “I played really well, for how the wind was. I just had a couple shots I hit super awful. If I hadn’t hit those shots so poorly, I feel like I would’ve been even lower today. But the score I had, I can’t be mad about anything.”

Along with his birdie on the par-3, 125-yard 10th hole, Klein also had a birdie on the similar par-3, 126-yard fourth. Klein had three bogeys over his final six holes, but finished with a par on 18 to clinch the win.

Edward Little senior Collin Merritt, who led early in the match and finished tied for sixth with Mt. Ararat’s Parker Bate and Nick McGonagle of Deering, didn’t think the wind was a big factor in his round.

“It was definitely tough, but the past couple of days when we’ve been practicing, it’s been like this. The weather’s been pretty similar. I think that helped a little bit,” Merritt said.

In this season shortened to a two and a half week fall by the Covid-19 pandemic, the golfers were glad to get in a season at all, and to have a state championship match when sports like field hockey and soccer are unable to play postseason tournaments was a bonus.

“I think it was organized pretty well, for the amount of matches we had, and how they organized states to keep the numbers down. I think everything was planned out pretty well,” Merritt said.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

tlazarczyk@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM

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