Radnor girls remember the building blocks

   A few leftovers from a busy week of scholastic golf as the countdown to the 2013 U.S. Open at Merion Golf Club’s East Course on a Sunday with Hurricane Sandy bearing down stands at 229 days.  
   There was an interesting dynamic involving the road the Radnor girls team took to what ultimately became this week’s PIAA Class AAA championship.
   The senior co-captains on this year’s team, Jamie Susanin and Allie Ziegler, never failed to mention the seniors who had graduated before them, particularly Jackie Calamaro, who captained the 2009 team, and Caitlin Sullivan, captain of the 2011 team that broke through with a District One title, when they talked about how this year’s team became a state champion.
   Sullivan is in her first year at the Air Force Academy. She has just recently emerged from the communication blackout first-year students there are subjected to, so she was able to get a cellphone message from her former teammates with the good news from Heritage Hills. Before that, though, no cellphones, no texts, no email, no Facebook, no Twitter. What’s a modern-day teenager to do to get the latest news to their former teammate?

   Susanin and Ziegler were able to keep Sullivan informed earlier in the season via the long lost art of letter-writing.
“Pen and paper?” I asked the triumphant duo following their crowning moment.
   “We were writing her letters, letting her know how we were doing,” Susanin said beside a nodding Ziegler.
   “They called Sully and she was excited, and I’m sure they’ll get a hold of Jackie, if they haven’t called her already and she’ll be excited,” Radnor coach Andy Achenbach said.
   It will go down in the books as Radnor’s 2012 state championship team, but in the minds of this year’s captains, everybody that helped build the program could take pride in knowing that they had a hand in making it happen.
   In much the same spirit, it’s worth noting that even though the Red Raiders were able to throw out the 101 posted by junior Julieanne Horgan in Wednesday’s team competition, she is as much a part of the team as the four players whose scores counted. 
   Horgan has been there all along for last year’s District One and East Regional team titles and PIAA runnerup honors and again this fall for the district repeat and finally a state title.

    That's the 2012 PIAA Class AAA champion Radnor Red Raiders with their championship trophy at Heritage Hills Golf Resort in an image provided to T Mac Tees Off by Suzanne Ziegler, mother of Allie. The group includes: From left, head coach Andy Achenbach, Julieanne Horgan, co-captains Allie Ziegler and Jamie Susanin, Julia Curley, Brynn Walker and assistant coach Steve Burns.

Broomall’s Ryan leaves his mark at Heritage Hills

   St. Joseph Prep senior Mac Ryan, a Broomall resident and Overbrook G.C. member, teed it up at Heritage Hills as a member of the District 12 champion Hawks.
   Ryan’s solid 77 was the second-best score posted by the Prep, behind only the 76 carded by Kevin Kramarski. The Prep finished third in the Class AAA team standings at 312.

More from the Inter-Ac Tournament

   Managed to pick up a little more information on the Bert Linton Inter-Ac League Tournament, which was held Wednesday at Sunnybrook G.C.
   We were able to report in the Thursday Daily Times that Haverford School junior Cole Berman had repeated as the Inter-Ac individual champion by matching par with a 72 at Sunnybrook.
   Berman was followed by three of his teammates as two-time All-Delco Scott Jaster was the runnerup with a 76, Jay Losty was third with a 77 and Timmy Brooks had a 78.
   What we didn’t have that night was that Brooks finished in a three-way tie for fourth with Malvern Prep’s Michael Lemond and Germantown Academy’s Jake Niedosik.
   Episcopal Academy’s Joe Chambers was alone in seventh place with a 79. Episcopal senior Sean Fahey, who suffered an untimely injury midway through the fall season, shot an 80 and finished in a tie for eighth at that figure along with Ryan Tetrault of The Haverford School, Chris Dalglish of Springside Chestnut Hill and Brendan Papariello of Malvern Prep.
   Episcopal senior Alex Dupre had an 86.

Villanova finishes fall on a roll

   The first-place finish for former Haverford School standout Michael Kania and for Villanova in the team standings at last weekend’s Lehigh Invitational made the Daily Times as a brief item in the Monday, Oct. 22 edition.
   But the effort deserves to be expanded on. After all, it was the first tournament win for the Wildcats under Jim Wilkes.
   Kania, a two-time All-Delco and two-time Inter-Ac League champion during his time down Lancaster Avenue at The Haverford School, followed up an opening-round 68 at Saucon Valley C.C.’s Grace Course, site of two U.S. Senior Open championships, with a 75 for a 1-under 143 total that gave him his first tournament victory.
   The runnerup finish by Kania’s fellow senior Steve Skurla, who had rounds of 70 and 74 to finish a shot back of Kania, was also a career-best showing for him.
   Cory Siegfried, The Haverford School All-Delco who is using up his eligibility while studying for a master’s degree on the Main Line, finished in a tie for third at 2-over 146.
   And the third member of the Wildcats’ Haverford School connection, sophomore Ted Brennan, a Newtown Square resident, finished sixth at 3-over 147. Brennan’s improved play might be as big a story as any during a fine fall campaign for the Wildcats.
   Villanova followed up a sizzling 284 team total on Day One with a second-round 296 for a 580 total that left the Wildcats 16 shots clear of runnerup Rutgers.
   Villanova will put the sticks away for a while. The Wildcats don’t return to tournament play until early March at the VCU Harmony Golf Invitational in Orlando, Fla.
   Luke Edelman of Bucknell was one of the players who shared third place in the Lehigh Invitational with Siegfried at 146, leading the Bison to a fifth-place finish in the team standings.
   Another Bucknell player who is having a fine fall season is senior Dan Bernard, a Malvern Prep product who is a member at Aronimink G.C. Bernard finished in a tie for 21st at Saucon Valley with a 155 total.
   Bernard’s performance in September earned him Patriot Player of the Month honors.
   Bernard earned his first career tournament victory at the Bucknell Invitational, edging Edelman by two shots. He was Bucknell’s first individual winner at any tournament since Andrew Cohen captured the Lafayette Invitational in the spring of 2010.
   Bernard was also the Bison’s low player in two other September events. He finished tied for fourth at the Cornell Invitational and tied for 10th at the Colgate Invitational.

Philadelphia PGA Junior Tour

   Garnet Valley junior Jack Highfill remains active on the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour’s fall swing.
Highfill posted an 85 in a Junior Tour stop at Honeybrook G.C. Oct. 20 to finish sixth in the 16-to-18 division.
   Younger brother Noah finished 13th in the 13-to-15 age group with a 104. Daniel Bullock of Wayne was a shot better than Highfill in 12th place with a 103.
   Great Valley junior Sawyer Wolfers was an impressive winner of that age group with a 3-over 73.
   Among the nine-holers, Jacob Calamaro of Newtown Square finished fifth with a 46.

Forster takes match-play event

   Radnor Valley C.C. head pro George Forster claimed a 1-up victory over Hidden Valley G.C. pro Terry Hatch in the final to claim the Philadelphia Section PGA’s Match Play Championship Wednesday at Little Mill C.C. in Marlton, N.J.
   Forster took a 2-up lead when Hatch lost a hole after declaring a penalty on himself for moving a loose impediment in a bunker. But Hatch battled back by taking the 15th and 17th holes to draw even before Forster won it at the last.