MEREDITH – The door was open for one of these teams to break through. With Newport in clear control of the Division IV golf championship on Thursday at Waukewan Golf Club, both Moultonborough Academy and Inter-Lakes High School had the opportunity in front of them to end their seasons with a top-three finish.

Bailey Jensen and Michael Dalzell made sure it was the Panthers who cashed in.

Jensen finished his round with a team-low score of 85 and Dalzell delivered an 87 on the par-72 course to catapult Moultonborough Academy to a second-place finish, 20 strokes behind first-place Newport (338).

“He’s a solid player, a good player and a good guy all-around,” Moultonborough Academy Coach Shawn Haskins said of Jensen. “He was happy with his performance, too. He started off slow, I think he was 7 over in the first seven holes or something which isn’t typical, but we’ve had some really good matches this year and he played well.”

Moultonborough’s Noah Smith (91) and Garrett McCarthy (95) also factored in to the Panthers’ final total of 358, something that has been a common theme all season long.

“Just being consistent and doing what they’ve been doing all season,” Haskins said. “We could have shot a little better and closer to our average but we’re not used to playing 18 holes so it’s a long, hot day but we had some nice, solid performances.”

White Mountains (378) and Hopkinton (380) finished just behind Moultonborough with Inter-Lakes (382), Mascenic (386) and Farmington (394) rounding out the team scores.

“We’ve had a great year. Going in, we were 14-4 but we were 0-3 after our first match,” Inter-Lakes Coach Chuck Yaeger said. “They’ve really come a long way and you come out here and play 18 holes, it’s a new animal for most of us. We knew going in that Newport and Bow were the top two horses in this race and that proved to be right.”

The Lakers were led by Nick Spicuzza, who finished his round with a score of 89, while Ryan Hale shot a 95 and both Tyler Reid and Bret Burns finished at 99.

Every team in the field, though, was no match for the firepower of Newport, who took over the round thanks to a 77 from Cameron Gebo. Gabe Edwards (83), Brandon Whalen (86) and Darren O’Connor (92) were the other factors in helping the Tigers take home another championship.

The Division IV cut for the individual tournament was set at 89 with a handful of players reaching the mark. Hopkinton’s Nick Fairneny finished second overall with a 78 with Gorham’s Hunter Desilets behind him at 81. Hillsboro-Deering’s Jacob Cole (84), White Mountains’ Nick Foster (87) and Braxton Brown (89), and Farmington’s Jake Squires (89) also made the cut.

“Just seeing them come out and walk down the fairways and compete with one another,” Yaeger said, when asked about his favorite part of the tournament. “When the bags are on their shoulders and they’re walking and talking, they have good conversations and are experiencing social skills. And when the bags go down on the ground, it’s all business and they compete hard. When the bags go back up again, it’s a friendly match again so I think that’s a great part of this.”

The individual tournament for Division IV is scheduled for Saturday at Waukewan.

(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3340 or at jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @jaymcaree.)