The Cougars shot 292 on Tuesday to cap a two-day total of 592 that crushed the rest of the field, including runner-up Tualatin by 32 strokes at Heron Lakes Golf Course in Portland.

The 292 was the team’s best score of the season, coming less than one week before the 6A state tournament that begins Monday at Trysting Trees Golf Course in Corvallis.

“Shooting a 292 the last tournament before state is really key for our team in getting our confidence up,” Canby senior Robbie Ziegler said. “Our team realizes this is our last year. We have four seniors and we’ve been working really hard at practice and our whole focus this year has been on state so we’ll give it our all at state.”

Ziegler also prevailed to win the district championship, shooting a two-day total of 136 (67-69) — the lone player in the field to post any score less than 70. It provided a small consolation prize for the University of Oregon-bound Canby native, who missed out on last year’s district title by five strokes to future UO teammate Isiah Telles.

“It feels good because last year, I didn’t win and had a tough loss,” Ziegler said. “This year it feels good. It’s double positive because I played pretty well and that’s what I want to do before state.”

And just like how the entire league season played out, several Cougars finished atop the individual leaderboard to take four of the top seven scores at the district tournament.

Senior Wyatt Hart continued his late-season emergence after shooting in the 80’s in the first three conference tournaments. Hart finished with three rounds in the 70’s over his last four rounds, taking fourth overall at districts with a two-day total of 152 (75-77).

Senior Cory Larro, who has signed on to play golf at Concordia University next fall, was one of just eight players to shoot two rounds in the 70’s and tied Hart for fourth overall at 152 (78-74).

Rounding out the Cougars’ team score was junior Alex Daniel, who rallied after an atypical round of 80 on the first day — his first of the league season — to shoot a 74 on the second day and tied for seventh overall at 154 (80-74).

“He kind of stumbled (the first day) but he held it together and posted a good round,” Canby coach Darek Franklin said. “And that’s what we’ve been looking for all year — the super good consistency — everybody shooting around 75 and Robbie letting him do what he does.”

Senior Nick Layton also finished up strong to tie for 12th overall with Tualatin’s Zach Vaughn at 157 (82-75).

The victory also puts Canby into 6A state title contention with defending state champion Jesuit and last year’s runner-up Sheldon, who won the state title in 2005 and 2006. The Cougars will be looking for their fist ever state championship in boys golf.

Franklin believes his team will need to shoot even lower to post two rounds of no more than 295.

“I think we can do it,” he said. “We definitely left some shots out there (Tuesday). There’s always room for improvement. I think Trysting Trees is an easier golf course so there’s definitely not the amount of hazards and stuff this golf (Heron Lakes) has, so theoretically, the bad shots we hit today aren’t going to turn out as bad so we aren’t going to make the big numbers that we saw here but the guys are all peaking right now, which is nice to see.”

In their respective district tournaments this past week, Jesuit won with a 303 in the Metro League at Meriwether Golf Course and Sheldon had a two-day total of 618 in the Southwest Conference at Rogue Valley Golf Course.

For Ziegler, this coming week marks his final chance at winning an individual state title. Ziegler took eighth at state as a freshman, third as a sophomore and runner-up as a junior last spring.

However, he admits he feels as prepared as any other season to grab his first state title among a field that includes defending state champion Phillip Bagdade of Sheldon, Tigard’s Arthur Kim, and Jesuit’s Jeff Petroff and Sam Kloenne.

“This is probably the first year that I’ve felt the most confident because I obviously played well here and I haven’t lost yet in league so that was definitely a plus,” Ziegler said. “But me and my whole team are going to work really hard in practice and get prepared for state.”