Michael Ward

Stryker Leick (’26) and Booth Hayes (’26) compete at the Colorado High School 4A state golf tournament at the Tiara Rado Golf Course.

Stryker Leick (‘26) and Booth Hayes (‘26) both qualified for the boys golf state championship. Along with qualifying for state, Hayes (‘26) made second-team all-state in 4A. 

Hayes (‘26) has been golfing for 13 years; he has played since he was three years old and has also been playing competitively for 10 years. Along with Hayes (‘26), Leick (‘26) has been playing competitively for 10 years. 

Hayes (‘26) and Leick (‘26) want to finish their senior year off strong next season and hope to both qualify for state again. Hayes (‘26) explained, “I’m hoping to at least get top three [next season] at state, by changing my outlook a little bit and just resetting instead of trying to fix something within my swing.”

Similarly, Leick (‘26) said, “[I’m] trying to get top 10 next year at state.” 

Although they were disappointed with how state ended this season, Hayes (‘26) has a positive outlook for the coming season,“I feel like I did pretty good, I mean obviously there’s things I would like to change, but can’t anymore,” Hayes (‘26) said.

This season was different from the past in terms of players qualifying for state. In past years, Mead only had one golfer qualify for state, but this year Mead was fortunate enough to have two athletes qualify. 

Booth Hayes (‘26) and Stryker Leick (‘26) have great work ethic and are very focused in practice, which then translates over to their performance on the course. 

Head coach Mike Ward said, “They just focus the entire time we’re at practice, they work hard and have a good work ethic. The attention to detail and practice throughout the year has shown up because they played well [due to] practicing well.”

Coach Ward has hope for next season as a lot of the players were juniors, sophomores, and freshmen so they’ll be returning team members. 

Coach Ward’s advice to younger players is to put yourself out there and work hard. There’s a lot that comes to playing sports but the adversity and hardships players face can carry over in life. He said, “[Golf] is a very humbling sport, but it will teach you so many things that will transfer over in life when you have to overcome adversity and setbacks.”

The Mav wishes them both luck next season.