Harrison Campbell is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Hamilton High School for AZPreps365.com 

Hamilton left the first day of the AIA Boys Golf Division I State Championship in Tucson down six strokes to rival Brophy prep. Most teams would probably want to get some rest and take it easy before the final day. Not Hamilton. The team drove around Tucson until they found a suitably lighted driving range, where they stayed for hours not only preparing for the final round, but also enjoying their final tournament together as a team. 

The next day, Oct. 29, the Huskies fought back from that six-stroke deficit to be crowned Arizona state champions for the second year in a row. It’s a feat that hasn’t been achieved since Hamilton won five straight state titles beginning in 2005. 

Leading the pack for Hamilton was this year’s individual state champion, junior Mahanth Chirravuri, who finished with a score of 130 on the week, including a clutch 6-under-par performance on the second day to help lock the victory. 

Also on the top of the leaderboard for Hamilton was last year’s individual state champion, senior Johnny Walker, who finished tied for sixth with a score of 139, and sophomore Anawin Pikulthong, who finished by himself in third place with a score of 137. Another Husky placing was junior Nick Lippe, who finished tied for 32 with a 151 through both days.

On top of these strong performances, Hamilton took the title by a convincing twelve strokes over the Brophy Broncos, who beat out Hamilton for the 2018 state title before the Huskies would get their revenge last year in 2019.

This was a season that was questionable to even take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making it that much sweeter for the players and coaches. 

“We were all just really grateful to have a season first off, we all knew a state title would be great, but we were just happy to have the chance to be out there competing for our school this year,”  Pikulthong said.

“We went from really not even sure if we were going to be able to play, to winning a state championship, so that’s kind of a wide range of emotions,” said longtime Hamilton coach Steve Kanner. 

During the regular season the Huskies more than impressed, finishing with 10 team victories out of the 12 events they attended. Almost every win was accompanied by an individual victory for a Husky as well.

All those events were in preparation for the fight they would face at the state championship.

“It was definitely different … this year we kind of struggled the first day but we were able to pull it together and come back and win,” Walker said in an interview with Andy Morales of AZPreps365.

The team’s mentality is a big reason they were able to make that final day push. 

“It is something very special and unique to have young kids like that, that are so willing to put in the extra effort and just keep getting better and working together and trying to help each other,” Kanner said. 

There’s no better illustration than what happened after the first day at the state tournament. Leaving the course trailing, and needing a big second day, the team begged their coach to go to a driving range. After a full day of playing, they just wanted to go hit more balls. 

“We ended up staying there like three hours, and I had to pry them off the range, I think they would’ve stayed another hour or two working on things,” said Kanner before adding, “It wasn’t just slapping the ball around, they were really super focused.”

That fierce mentality appeared the next day when the Huskies not only erased the six-shot deficit but by the end of the day, created their own twelve-stroke gap at the top of the leaderboard. This was behind a team score of 274 the second day, the best team score of the tournament that day and 18 strokes better than the Broncos’ finish on day two. 

“It was a relief, after the first day … a lot of us didn’t have the belief, but we pulled through and I am definitely proud of our guys,” Pikulthong said about the come-from-behind win.

When asked about his thought process going into the last day comeback, individual champion Chirravuri told Morales:  “It was just one shot at a time, I have a lot of confidence in my teammates, we knew we were going to play well today and we were going to bring it all.”

Chirravuri is one of three Hamilton players committed to playing at a PAC-12 college after high school. Walker is the oldest of the three and will join the Arizona Wildcats next season, Chirravuri is committed to play golf at the University of Southern California starting in 2022, and the youngest is Pikulthong, who is just a sophomore but has already committed to play at Arizona State. 

These three future college rivals help set the tone for the rest of the team, leading vocally and by example.

Talking about the trio’s impact, Kanner said, “Mahanth, Anawin, and Johnny really took the lead and tried to help the guys get better, they’re not selfish, even though in some ways they are kind of competing against each other, they’re all willing to help each other which doesn’t always happen, but it was really was a big part of our team.”

Unfortunately, with the conclusion of this season also comes the end of 2019 individual state champion Walker’s career with the Huskies. In his three years at Hamilton, he won two state championships at the team level, to go along with his individual title and countless other first place finishes. As a captain and a leader Walker, along with senior teammate Alexander Paul, will be missed by his teammates and coaches.

With Walker’s career at Hamilton finishing, it looks as though the Huskies’ two other college commits are poised to step further into the leadership role.

“It’s a natural development that I think they’ve already started doing, and I expect them to continue doing that … I think that they like pushing each other to get better, this is just one of the steps along what I think is going to be a long career,” Kanner said of Chirravuri and Pikulthong. 

“The rest of the team really looks up to them for a bunch of different reasons, work ethic, talent, a sense of humor, all those things, both those guys have all those qualities.”

Their leadership will be pivotal as Hamilton looks to potentially replicate the success the program saw 15 years ago when the Huskies began their string of winning five straight state titles from 2005-2009. 

According to Chirravuri, the goal is, “Just win it again, we have a couple of our teammates coming back, we're losing Johnny unfortunately but I think we’ll be right in the mix of things next year.”

“You can’t win them all if you don’t win the first,” said Pikulthong who is two for two so far in his quest. 

After coming off two straight and with the same number of seniors leaving, another state title for the Hamilton Huskies is by no means a stretch.