Ripon High senior Nick Sharp successfully defended his championship at the Tracy/West Invitational on Monday, winning a card-off with three other players who finished 1-over-par 73 at Tracy Country Club.

The tiebreaker was back-nine score, as Sharp got the edge over Tracy’s Jared Finney, Liberty’s Tom Boer and Benicia’s Dustin Sparks.

Benicia won the team competition with a 403 and was followed by Liberty (408) of Brentwood, Granada of Livermore (411), Tracy (411) and Lincoln of Stockton (426). Eighteen schools were represented, but three did not factor into the team event for not fielding the requisite five players.

The six teams ahead of Trans-Valley League rivals Escalon and Ripon were all from larger schools. Escalon, in the driver’s seat for the TVL title, took seventh with a 434, and defending Sac-Joaquin Section Division V champion Ripon was eighth with a 455. 

Kole Gonzales contributed an 86 for the Indians, who had solid effort from Josh Angel (96) and Rhet Herrin (99) on the back end of their lineup. Luis Candido rounded out their score with a 101.