Free State High’s Alex Green looks after his tee shot on Wednesday at Alvamar Country Club.

Free State High’s Alex Green looks after his tee shot on Wednesday at Alvamar Country Club.

Lawrence High’s Connor Henrichs chips onto the 10th green at the Lawrence Invite on Wednesday at Alvamar.

On some days, Lawrence High sophomore Brett Van Blaricum can step into the tee box and feel no nerves at all.

As he began his round Wednesday at the Lawrence Invitational at Alvamar public — for whatever reason — it was not one of those days for Van Blaricum.

Because of the shotgun format, Van Blaricum teed off on the par-4 fifth hole, which features a tight fairway lined with thick trees on the right and a creek on the left.

Van Blaricum’s ball found the trees, and he went on to make triple-bogey to begin his round, but rebounded well to card a team-low 85 after shooting 1-under over his final five holes.

“This being a home course (for LHS), I wanted to play well,” Van Blaricum said. “If it wasn’t for my blow-up holes, I would’ve shot an 81, or an 82, so I’m pretty happy with how I played.”

Neither LHS nor Free State High shot quite as well as it would have liked, especially on a familiar course, but still put up respectable scores.

FSHS finished tied for 11th with a team score of 330, while LHS finished 18th after scoring 347.

Shawnee Mission East won the tournament with a 296, followed by Shawnee Mission Northwest at 310. SM Northwest won a tiebreaker over Blue Valley North.

LHS junior Logan Henrichs, who carded an 87 in the final leg of the three-round Sunflower League tournament, placed 10th in the league as an individual with a three-round total of 243.

SM East (884) also won the three-round league tournament, followed by Olathe East (944) and Olathe Northwest (951). Free State (1,018) was sixth, while Lawrence High (1,053) took seventh.

“He didn’t have as good a round as he was hoping for,” LHS coach Dirk Wedd said of Logan Henrichs. “He thought he might be able to get to fourth or fifth. But being in the top 10 is pretty special.”

Conner Henrichs shot an 87 at the Lawrence Invite for the Lions, followed by Devon Weber and Jesse Ohtake at 88, and Narito Mendez at 94.

Lee York (77) shot the low round for the Firebirds, followed by Nick Hay and Colin Becker at 84, Wilson Hack at 85, and Alex Green and Jake Sakumura at 87.

York’s entire group placed in the top 10 Wednesday, and he said the tidy play motivated him to stay focused. At times, though, he said it was a touch discouraging.

“The worst part was, from the same yardage out (around 180 yards), I’d be hitting a 4-iron and they’d hit a 7-iron onto the green and make birdie,” York said. “That’s ridiculous.”

York, who shot a 38 on the front nine and 39 on the back, said his best stretch was on Nos. 6-8. He birdied the par-3 sixth (the No. 1 handicap on the course), bogeyed the seventh, and birdied the par-5 eighth.

Others weren’t as fortunate with the putter. Becker, for instance, stood just off the 18th green after his round and grinned as he joked to a few of his teammates about his still-admirable score of 84: “The other day (at Leavenworth), I made every putt. Today I couldn’t make anything.”

“That’s golf,” FSHS coach Matt Gudenkauf said. “Everything can be working one day, and it’s way off the next.”

Both the Firebirds and Lions hope everything is working Monday, when they’ll begin regionals at St. Andrews Golf Course in Overland Park.

Van Blaricum is one of the few city golfers to have played St. Andrews — which both Gudenkauf and Wedd said was supposed to be similar to Eagle Bend — while the rest of the city’s best golfers will get their first look at it in a practice round this weekend.