When Shawnee Mission East senior Thomas Gogel calmly dropped his ball onto the green during a playoff to decide the Class 6A individual state champion, it elicited a loud response from one of his Lancer teammates.

Senior Graham Mosher, a team captain who did not compete but still made the long trip from Prairie Village to Newton to support his teammates at state, yelled out, “Light the candle.”

Unlike when a random fan yelled those words at Tigers Woods during the 2012 Players Championship, these words preceded a victory by the player receiving the cheer.

Gogel watched as his opponent, Blue Valley junior Chance Rinkol, salvaged a trip to the sand trap with a bogey. Gogel casually strolled up for a two-putt finish and a par to clinch a state title in his final high school golf tournament.

Gogel was more than happy to decide the state title this way.

“I hit the ground running, nothing I wanted to switch up,” Gogel said. “Sudden death is basically match play and that's my favorite format of golf. I had a lot of momentum going in and a positive mindset.”

Two years ago, Gogel narrowly missed out on the chance for the exact same showdown. Rinkol won the state in 2021 as freshman, finishing one stroke ahead of Gogel.

“I came up just short two years ago, so it was good to get some revenge,” Gogel said.
 

Before he clinched the individual state title with the playoff, Gogel and his teammates had already gotten wind of the outcome in the team race.

Shawnee Mission East also faced a tie in the team race. The Lancers finished the second day of state tied for first place with Olathe West at 575. Instead of a playoff, the team tiebreaker comes down to the top score of the fifth golfer for each team, which also went the Lancers way.

Shawnee Mission East won its first boys golf state title since 2018 and 19th overall, tying Washburn Rural for third most all-time. The Lancers now trail only Kapaun Mt. Carmel (30) and Wichita East (21) in team titles.

“This was three years in the making,” Shawnee Mission East head coach Evan Scobie said. “Last year wasn’t the best way to finish, so they had a bad taste in their mouth. This year, you got three seniors in this group, so it's pretty fitting for them to finish their careers this way.”

Gogel echoed that sentiment: “We went into state with a different mindset this year. We kind of cracked down on some of the freshmen. We went to bed a little earlier this year, took it a little more seriously.”

Taking it seriously helped Gogel become the program’s eighth overall individual state champion. The most recent was Andy Spencer in 2015. Spencer was the only won over those individual champions to win in a year where the Lancers did not also win the team title.

Scobie pointed to the camaraderie and support across a team roster much bigger than six varsity spots, as the reason for this year’s state title. He specifically pointed to guys like Mosher traveling a long way to deliver motivational catchphrases, which also includes “This ain’t no hobby.”

“I think those guys provide a spark and energy that reflects in the scores,” Scobie said.

Gogel and Rinkol finished Day 1 with the same score of 68, putting them in a three-person tie with Olathe East junior Parker Mores for lead in the individual state title race. Mores break his school’s record with his first-round mark, but ended up sliding down the leaderboard on the final day.
 

Except for an early bogey on Hole 5, Blue Valley’s Chance Rinkol stayed steady throughout his Day 2 performance to score a 70. He scored par on 14 holes while picking up birdies on 4, 12, and 17.

But even after taking a three-shot lead into the final six holes and hitting one under par down the stretch, it seemed like Rinkol knew it would not be enough to hold off Gogel.

Rinkol finished six groups ahead of Gogel. He wasted very little time waiting around at the clubhouse before he took to the driving range and the practice putting green to get himself prepared for a potential showdown.

Rinkol tried to stay ready, but Gogel just needed to carry on his momentum from the finish to his final round. Gogel knew he needed a little magic to catch up with Rinkol down the stretch.

“I had to make some birdies, which is pretty fun to do,” Gogel said. “I got lucky on 18. It was in bounds by three feet, so that was pretty special

However, Gogel did have a tough start at the beginning of each nine on the second day. He shot bogeys on Hole 2 and 10. He got a birdie on 6 to hit par on the front nine.

Gogel got to work with a birdie on 13, followed by back-to-back birdies on 15 and 16. 

“On 16, he hit an incredible bunker shot, made birdie there,” Scobie said. “He had to earn his par on 18, but it paid off in the end.”

Gogel said one of his shots on 18 was inbounds by just three feet.
 

“That was pretty special,” Gogel said.

The playoff started on Hole 10, where Rinkol had hit par both days. Gogel hoped he could play the hole closer to how he did on Day 1 when he birdied.

Both golfers started well, hitting drives that set up parallel spots for their second shots, although Gogel’s drive put a body of water between him and the flag.

Gogel did not blink as he sent the ball straight over the pond and onto the center of the fairway. Rinkol’s next shot left him trailing and off to the right.

Rinkol would get himself into more trouble when his third shot hooked into a bunker while Gogel’s landed him perfectly on the green.

Rinkol played the shot well out of the sand and onto the green, although a late roll away from the hole ended up taking away a potential par. He two-putted for a bogey.

Gogel missed his first putt, but casually strolled up to the ball for a short putt to make par and clinch the state title.

Despite having 11 seniors on the squad this year, two freshman golfers were able to shine through on the biggest stage for the Lancers.

Wylie Curtis delivered the second-lowest score for his team with a two-day 145 to finish 14th. Elliott Cowden did not have a great start to his first trip to state with a 77 on Day 1, but he more than made up for that during the final round. Cowden gave the Lancers their best Day 2 score with a 69, allowing him to finish tied for 15th at 146.

“After not firing such a good round one, the key (to a better second round) was just relaxing and not forcing anything,” Cowden said. “I just let it come to me on the second day.”

Senior Ben Slicker rounded out the team’s top four with a 152, but it was senior Jack Shelton’s score that ultimately pushed the Lancers over the top. Shelton shot a 75 on Day 2 to finish with a 152, putting him two strokes ahead of Olathe West’s fifth golfer, sophomore Parker Boggins at 154 and give Shawnee Mission East the tiebreaker.

Shelton puts his name in the Lancers’ history book along with his dad. Tyler Shelton helped led Shawnee Mission East to a state championship in 1990, also winning the individual state title that year.

It was the second straight year that the Class 6A state race came down to a tiebreaker, but this year’s state tournament was somehow closer all across the leaderboard.

Blue Valley West senior Carson Baker, who won last year’s 6A individual state title, finished in a five-person tie for 15th place in this highly competitive field. Despite having Rinkol and junior James Ackerman, who finished third in last year’s state tournament, Blue Valley lost the chance to defend the Tigers’ two straight 6A team titles as they finished fifth at their regional.

Blue Valley West freshman Parker Bennett finished third with a 139. Olathe West junior Nicklaus Nickloy and sophomore Bennett Warren tied for fourth with a 140. Blue Valley Northwest senior Rohan Desai and Blue Valley North freshman Brady Rapp tied for sixth at 142. Ackerman and Garden City sophomore Maddix Shook took eighth as they tied at 143. 

Olathe Northwest senior Gavin Dines, Blue Valley Northwest senior Ryan Green, Olathe East senior Brayden Grosz and Manhattan freshman Jackson Powers earned a share of 10th place with their 144 scores.