Staff photo / Neel Madhavan. Badger sophomore Tyler McWilliams (right) does putting drills on Tuesday, as Braves coach Mark Mariani looks on, at the Avalon Field Club in New Castle, Pa.

For the first time in program history, the Badger boys golf team is headed to the state tournament.

The Braves, who tore through the regular season undefeated this fall, finished third at the Division III northeast district championship at Tannenhauf Golf Club in Alliance last week to earn their spot at this weekend’s Division III state tournament at the Scarlet Course at Ohio State Golf Club.

“(Going undefeated) has been our goal from the beginning of the season,” head coach Mark Mariani said. “One of our goals was to go undefeated because the previous two years we could have gone undefeated, but we’d have one event where somebody was sick or somebody couldn’t make it and it didn’t work out. Our main goal was to go to states, so it’s not something that we were surprised with, but it is definitely something that’s significant.

“I think it’s bigger than the young kids realize. I’m older and a lot of the older alumni understand the significance moreso than the kids.”

Badger’s top three in its five-man lineup consists of juniors Austin Mariani and Ian Tricker and senior Hudson Rice — that trio has consistently posted low scores all season to lead the Braves.

At districts, Tricker paved the way for the team with an 82 to finish tied for 12th, then Rice came in with an 83 to tie for 16th, while Austin fired an 84 to tie for 18th. Badger’s lineup was rounded out by sophomore Tyler McWilliams and senior Duncan Moy, for each of whom this is their first year on the team. McWilliams shot an 89 to finish 34th at districts and Moy shot 94 to tie for 41st.

Mariani has employed some unique lineups throughout the year to help the team improve its depth and consistency.

About halfway through the season, instead of playing his top three together during matches, Mariani opted to split them up and pair each of them with Moy, McWilliams’ and Badger’s sixth man. That way the Braves’ stronger players could help mentor the team’s less experienced players.

“They didn’t like it at first, but I changed it up so that Austin was mentoring Tyler, who’s our No. 4 man, and Hudson was mentoring our No. 5 or 6 man,” Mariani said. “I moved things around a little bit just trying to get the younger kids, the No. 4, 5 and 6 men, to learn a little bit from the No. 1, 2 and 3 men. Each of their styles are slightly different and just the way they go about things is slightly different. I think it was good for them, and I think it’s helped Tyler a lot.”

The trio of Austin, Rice and Tricker have each played together for several years now. They were each part of the squad that finished eighth at districts last year and the year prior. In order to get better, they started working with a swing coach, Buster Thomas, at Squaw Creek.

Mariani said they’ve each come a long way since then, improving in a variety of ways on the course, but still they continue to push each other to be better every day.

“Austin and Ian were kind of like ball boys when they were in seventh and eighth grade, but they could still beat most of the kids on the high school team,” Mariani said. “So when they came up and they were freshmen, that’s when we realized that Hudson could play pretty well too. They (all) became fast friends and they learned a lot from each other.”

The Braves are one of four Mahoning Valley teams to qualify for the state tournament.

Warren JFK and Cardinal Mooney also qualified with Badger in Division III, while Ursuline won their Division II district to also qualify for states.

Badger has competed against each of those teams and many other talented teams from around the area throughout the season. Consistently facing that level of competition throughout the year has made the Braves better and has helped prepare them for this moment, according to Mariani.

“(Rice, Austin and Tricker) all played in the Greatest Golfer Junior events all summer long, so they got tournaments under their belt this summer,” Mariani said. “But we’ve also played in invitationals that were similar as far as competitiveness. … I think it’s all just seasoning, and I think they’re about as prepared as they could be.”

The Braves will tee off the first round of the state tournament on the 10th tee starting at 9:50 a.m. Friday, followed by the final round on Saturday.

“I would say our goal as a team should be to finish in the top-four,” Mariani said. “I haven’t really studied all the other schools in the state, but I know there’s a couple that are extremely competitive. I think that there’s a chance we could if we play well. As individuals, I think we have a few people on the team that could be the next state champion if they’re playing their best.”

nmadhavan@tribtoday.com