Athens’ varsity boys golf team can officially party like it’s 2014.

The Golden Eagles placed runner-up in the Class 6A, North 4 sub-state tournament at Terrapin Hills Country Club on Tuesday, advancing to state for the first time in 11 years with an overall score of 296.

Keegan Richardson (72), Will Abernathy (74), Hayden Smith (74) and Jason Couey (76) netted the counting scores for Athens, which tied Mountain Brook for second but won the resulting tiebreaker — a sudden-death playoff in which all five players on each squad play the same hole and the best four scores are tallied — by a cumulative three strokes.

Peyton Preston (80) also played well for the Golden Eagles, who will compete in the state event next Monday and Tuesday at RTJ Oxmoor Valley in Birmingham.

“My guys fought extremely hard today,” Athens coach David Ezell said. “Terrapin Hills is not an easy course by any stretch of the imagination, and every one of my guys faced adversity during the round. From being behind early to gaining ground throughout, I knew that we had a chance to close it out. I gathered them all up before the sudden-death playoff started and just told them, ‘Think back to all the hard work that we have done since last July. We are built for this moment.’ We have talked all year about how pressure is a privilege, and though sometimes the guys make jokes about that, they truly embodied that today. But we do not plan on being done just yet — our goal all year has been to win a state championship and we haven’t shied away from talking about it.”

Defending 6A champion Adalyn Pike, meanwhile, carded a 2-over 73 to advance as an individual in the girls competition.