River Falls kept a great golf season alive June 2, finishing second at the Marshfield Sectional with a 318 to advance to the State stage.

Senior Ryan Swanson won another meet, which has become a bit like clockwork for him. Swanson scored a 70 to win by three strokes. Since deciding not to play golf collegiately, Swanson has felt a lot freer this year on the course.

“It’s more based on a free mindset. I was thinking about playing college golf, but I realized it wasn’t really the best path for me. So, I decided I wasn’t going to focus much on that and it allowed me to free up my game,” Swanson said.

Making it to State means a lot to this roster, which included three seniors that were in the five-man lineup at Sectionals. Senior Jaxon Flanagan scored an 81 to tie for 14th and senior Archimedes Xiong scored a 98 for a tie for 47th. The River Falls lineup was rounded out by sophomore Jace Dougherty, tying for 21st with an 83 and junior Nolen Dado tying for 27th with an 84.

“It feels great. Fourth year trying to do it and finally getting it done feels good. I knew we had it. We’ve had it the last couple years, and we just took one round to put it together and found a way,” Swanson said. “I felt I had a better leadership role on this team, and we were all a lot more focused as a team. We all knew each other, we all hung out outside of golf.”

Coach Tim LaVold said the team’s togetherness makes them better as a whole. When they took to the course for the Sectional practice round, he noticed the team helping each other with what to expect from each hole.

“They just work together really well. They encourage each other really well. A lot of times in the van rides coming home from meets this year, there was talk about, ‘Hey, what we just did today is good enough to get us to State if we can do it at Sectionals,’” LaVold said. “They had it in their minds all year that that’s the goal and we’re good enough to do it.”

With Swanson leading the way, the example was set for the work that goes into being the best on the course.

“Ryan just had a really good year this year, and he kind of carried the team the whole year,” Xiong said. “He kind of leads the team a lot.”

There are a lot of great teams at State, as always, and Xiong wants to see his team stay composed and have fun when they tee off June 8 in Madison.

“Just keep our composure and just be ourselves. Just have fun,” Xiong said.

Dado said he will be looked at as next year’s senior leader, so he is using this trip to State as a chance to find his footing as someone his teammates can look up to.

“Leadership and just everyone helping each other,” Dado said. “It’s just good learning for all of us because I’ll be the only senior next year.”

Many individuals have taken steps forward this season. LaVold mentioned Dougherty, who was not in the starting core early in the year, but earned his way into a spot at Sectionals and golfed extremely well with the season on the line.

“The theme this year was you’ve got to win your right to play every event. There wasn’t, okay these are our five, and whatever happens we’re just going to play. Everybody from varsity down through the JV competed for every event that they got to play in this year, and I think that gets you ready for the important moments,” LaVold said.

Spring Valley/Elmwood/Plum City tied for eighth of 12 at the Winter Sectional, scoring a 380. Sophomore Ruger Peavey scored an 82 to tie for fifth but lost a one-hole tiebreaker to miss out on State as an individual. Ellsworth tied for 11th in Spooner with a 362. Freshman Nolan Helgeson led the way in 34th with an 84 score.