It was a day of redemption at the District V Championship tournament Wednesday afternoon at Crofton Country Club.

The motivations were different, but for Crofton sophomore Owen Newberry and Marriotts Ridge senior Alana Alexander-Giles the end results were the same.

Newberry captured the boys individual title by one shot with an even-par round of 72 and Alexander-Giles secured the girls crown with a 2-over-par score of 74 to win by three shots.

Last year, as a freshman, Newberry had been forced to miss the district tournament after testing positive for COVID-19. This year, he made up for lost time.

“There was definitely a big chip on my shoulder after not being able to play last year. I think it made me want this even more,” Newberry said. “So to win and give myself a chance to now play at states for the first time, it means a lot.”

Centennial senior Dustin Stocksdale finished second with a 73, while Severna Park’s DA Regala and River Hill’s Benjamin Siriboury tied for third with a 75.

For Alexander-Giles, who said she nearly didn’t play Wednesday due to a sickness of her own, prevailed this year after posting an 86 at last year’s district tournament — leading to her not being part of the Mustangs’ team that qualified for states.

“Especially considering what happened last year, this feels really good,” Alexander-Giles said. “I felt really sick today, but I wasn’t going to let myself miss this.”

Glenelg’s Megan Kirkpatrick finished in second with a 77 and Marriotts Ridge’s Lila Becker was right behind her in third (78).

River Hill repeated as District V team champions, posting a four-player combined score of 315 to edge past second-place Marriotts Ridge by six shots.

“Anytime you are collecting hardware, it says a lot about the kids and a lot about the program,” River Hill coach Matt Graves said. “The work in the summertime and on those rainy and cold days, that’s what leads to this. They had to grind it out today, it was a long round, but they proved that they could stay strong.”

In total there were seven teams — River Hill, Marriotts Ridge, Crofton (326), Broadneck (330), Severna Park (336), Glenelg (347) and Centennial (353)  — that qualified for the state championship tournament at the University of Maryland next week.

The 3A/4A schools will play their opening round on Monday, while the 1A/2A schools will kick things off on Tuesday. The golfers who make the cut will then all return Wednesday for the championship round.

Newberry wasted little time setting the tone on Wednesday while playing in his first district tournament. After an opening par, he then made back-to-back birdies to quickly vault himself to the top of the leaderboard.

“I knew if I could start with a par there, considering it’s a very hard hole, then I was going to be in good shape because there were some birdiable holes after that,” Newberry said. “I ended up hitting some good wedge shots and making a few big putts there at the beginning.”

Newberry made another birdie on his sixth hole to get to 3-under and, by the end of the front nine, he was ahead by four shots overall.

Stocksdale, meanwhile, stumbled out of the gates. He triple bogeyed his third hole and then made a double bogey on his ninth to make the turn at 4-over par — seven shots behind Newberry.

But Stocksdale regrouped to catch fire on the back nine, making four birdies in a stretch of seven holes. Following his birdie on the par 4 seventh hole, he had pulled all the way back to within one shot of the lead with two holes to go.

“I’ve made a lot of runs in tournaments like this before, like last year at districts I did almost the same thing against Ben [Siriboury] and nearly came back, so I knew it was just a matter of giving myself opportunities,” Stocksdale said. “I nearly pulled it off. I started making some putts and I was able to chip away. But props to Owen. A lot of guys would have gone backwards when I was going on a run like that, but he stayed strong.”

Newberry got up-and-down from off the green on his 17th hole for par, while Stocksdale made a bogey to fall two shots behind. Newberry then had the cushion he needed to pull out the victory.

“Dustin is a good player, so I knew in the back of my head he was probably going to make a run. I just tried not to let it get to me and kept reminding myself that I was still playing well and still in front,” Newberry said. “I felt like the par on eight was the big one for me because that’s not an easy hole.”

Behind the top two, Regala and Siriboury each made one birdie on their way to shooting 3-over. Neither player got closer than three shots on the back nine.

In the girls tournament, Alexander-Giles found herself playing catch up in the early going. She made four bogeys in her first seven holes and several other players started quickly.

Among the fast starters were Wilde Lake’s Jane Mhonda and River Hill’s Helen Yeung, who were both under par through their opening three holes. But as Alexander-Giles settled in, playing her final 11 holes in 1-under par, those around her faded.

After a birdie on the 10th hole, Alexander-Giles had established a two-shot lead and she maintained an advantage of multiple strokes the rest of the way.

“My putting was really good today. I felt like almost every birdie putt that I had, I was able to make,” Alexander-Giles said.

Kirkpatrick was steady throughout and closed with a string of pars to end up alone in second place. Becker was third, Yeung fourth (79) and Mhonda fifth (82).