Newington High School senior Maki Kobayashi won the individual state championship in Division I boys’ golf Monday with a 3-under-par 68 — the best score in the Division I state championship in at least eight years, and four strokes ahead of his nearest competitor. He was at even par during the front nine, but was 3-under on the traditionally more difficult back nine. He capped the round in dramatic fashion with a 25-foot putt for eagle on the 18th hole. (Hat tip: Bonnie Stone.)

Kobayashi, ranked 130th in the country among junior golfers (and 51st among HS seniors) according to the Golfweek/Titleist rankings, is headed to the University of Hartford on a golf scholarship, part of one of the best recruiting classes in the nation.

Anyway, congrats, Maki! Now hopefully the boys’ volleyball squad can make it a uniquely successful week in NHS sports history by following up Kobayashi’s individual state championship with Newington’s first team state championship since 1994 (and first in a CIAC-sponsored sport since 1982). Step one: Beat Southington tonight in the semis! The game was scheduled for 4:00 PM EDT (1:00 PM MST), so it should be well underway by now, if not already over. We’ll know soon enough whether the Indians have exorcised all those Southington demons and advanced to the state title game…

(This has been your very late lunch-break update of the day, courtesy of Brendan’s weird eating schedule.)