CRANSTON — The lone East Providence High School player to make the cut, junior Billy Fitzgerald, finished the 2023 Rhode Island Interscholastic League State Championship Golf Tournament played May 30 and 31 at Cranston Country Club alone in 34th place.

Fitzgerald, a former baseball player who played golf at the high school level for the first time this spring, completed his two-day stay in the event with a 163 total or 22-over on the par 71 layout.

"Billy struck the ball well. His putting needs to improve a bit. But he showed he can compete with the best in the state," EPHS head coach Bill McEnery said.

McEnery continued on the playing conditions, "The greens at Cranston are big and slow. It's hard to get the ball to the cup. Our kids aren't used to that. They were like seven or eight on the Stimpmeter. I just wished they cut them down a little bit, but overall the course was in great shape. And the weather was super both days. You couldn't have asked for a better week to have the state tournament."

Fitzgerald was one of two Townies to qualify individually for states, joined in the opening round by freshman Nathan Carter. Fitzgerald's opening round 80 was good enough to be among the 45 players to make the cut. Carter's 89, however, was well off the pace.

"I'm very proud of Billy and Nathan. They both made it to the state tournament. That's the hard part. They should be proud of what they accomplished this year," McEnery added. "We're already looking forward to next year. I think we're going to be a better team because of the experience the kids got this season. Hopefully next year we send six kids to states instead of two, we qualify as a team instead of just individuals."

Narragansett's Sebastian Carlsson, who shared the opening round lead, won the individual title by six strokes, carding rounds of 1-under 70 and 4-under 67 to finish with an impressive two-round total of 137.

Prout's Mark Roberts was solo second, following up his even par 71 with a 1-over 72 to finish at 143.

Four players shared third place with 4-over, 146 totals: East Greenwich teammates Ryan Marcantonio and Joseph Earley, two-time defending solo state champ and LaSalle's Max Jackson and Coventry's Sam Fuentes, who was one of the first round co-leaders. Jackson was undone by an opening round 75. He followed up with an even-par round of 71.

Moses Brown's Adriana Eaton won the girls' individual title with rounds of 73 and 77 to finish with a 150 total. Defending champ and LaSalle's Olivia Williams shot rounds of 80-72 =152 to place second. Barrington's Lily Dessel shot 78-77=155 to place third.

Jackson could take some solace in knowing he led his LaSalle mates to a second consecutive team title, the Rams finishing with a two-day total of 596, 28-over.

Of the 10 teams to qualify for states under the new combined regular season matchplay/stroke average format, six managed to finish within 20 strokes of the lead after the first round to play on day two.

Barrington, the state's all-time winningest program with 24 championships and which led LaSalle by one stroke (302-303) after round one, slumped on day two to finish with at 606, 38-over.

East Greenwich was third at 615, 47-over. North Kingstown was fourth at 624, 56-over, Moses Brown fifth at 628, 60-over and Prout sixth at 633, 65-over.