**Click here for the complete results from the tournament**
**Click here for a photo gallery from the tournament**
**Please check back over the weekend for video interviews from the tournament**
By Dan Sousa
LoudounPrepSports.com Senior Content Editor
Sterling (Sept. 25, 2008) – Laughter may be the best medicine, but for Loudoun County High School golf coach John Laycock, in and out of the hospital the past month, winning is also a pretty good perscription.
Laycock, back after complications from a shoulder surgery in August left him sidelined, and John Brown, the former Raider golf coach who stepped in for Laycock this season, were both on hand Wednesday at Lowes Island as the young Raiders upended two-time AA Dulles District tournament champion Briar Woods by three strokes.
The Raiders 313 earned them their second district tournament title (the other coming in 2005) and bid to the Region II tournament next week in Crozet. Briar Woods, which had won back-to-back district tournament titles (2006 and 2007) and regular-season titles (2007 and 2008) also qualified for the regional tournament. The Falcons shot 316 Wednesday.
The Raiders didn’t have the best golfer on the course Wednesday, that belonged to Broad Run with senior Kevin Yerks firing a one-under par 71 on a day when the next lowest score belonged to LC sophomore Brantley Kushner with a 76. Freedom — which will send three individuals onto regionals and finished a strong third at 322, three shots better than BR at 325 — had the third-place medalist with junior Alex Choi shooting a 77
Potomac Falls (338), Heritage (354), Dominion (357) and Park View (371) rounded out the team scoring.
A cluster of athletes shot 78 including defending district champion senior Michael Birmingham of Briar Woods and his teammate freshman Adam Ochs. A pair of Raider shot 78, sophomore Kevin Cook and sophomore Andrew Brenneman, as did Freedom junior Tyler Blake.
In a five-way playoff for the Nos. 4-6 medal spots, Birmingham birdied the first playoff hole to take fourth and then Blake defeated Cook on the second playoff hole to take fourth with Cook fifth.
All players shooting 80 or better, and not on the BR or LC rosters, qualified as individuals for the regional tournament. That group included Yerks and teammate senior Tyler Campos (80), the three Eagles, Choi, Blake and Nick Lee (80). The sixth and final individual spot was decided in a playoff with Potomac Falls senior Michael Tondi defeating Heritage freshman John Conley on the first hole. Both had shot 81 for their rounds.
LC’s victory was built on a group of scores between 76 and 81 and all posted by sophomores (Brenneman, Cook, Kushner) and juniors (Jon Youst and Dan Jackson).
The Raiders victory was similar to two seasons ago when LC came into the tournament as the favorite to advance to regionals along side regular-season champion Potoamc Falls, only to have young sophomore-led team of Falcons win the tournament.
That BW group had run the table since then, taking the 2007 regular-season and tournament titles followed by the 2008 regualr-season tournament title. BW, however, stumbled a bit in the last week of the regular-season, falling to Broad Run in a dual match and then just nipping Heritage to clinch the regular-season title.
Past Dulles District Golf Champions
2008: Briar Woods (regular season), Loudoun County (tournament)
2007: Briar Woods (regular season), Briar Woods (tournament)
2006: Potomac Falls (regular season), Briar Woods (tournament)
2005: Heritage (regular season), Loudoun County (tournament)
2004: Loudoun Valley (regular season), Heritage (tournament)
2003: Loudoun Valley (regular season), Loudoun Valley (tournament)
2002: Potomac Falls (regular season), Potomac Falls (tournament)
2001: Potomac Falls (regular season), Potomac Falls (tournament)
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