Haverford School in a dogfight with Malvern Prep in the Inter-Ac

   If Haverford School plans to win a fourth straight Inter-Ac League championship, it’s going to have to survive a very strong challenge from Malvern Prep.

   Haverford School was the host at the fourth of the six Inter-Ac mini-tournaments Monday at Gulph Mills Golf Club and for the second time this season had to settle for second place behind the Friars.

The two best players in the league, Haverford School’s Cole Berman, the reigning Daily Times Player of the Year, and MalvernPrep’s Mike Davis on top of their games as each carded a 35.

   Between them they have won the last three Inter-Ac League individual titles. Davis, a Newtown Square resident and Aronimink Golf Club member, captured the title as a freshman in May of 2011, the final season the Inter-Ac played golf in the spring. Berman has won back-to-back titles as the Inter-Ac shifted to fall beginning in 2011. Berman and Davis were qualifiers for the U.S. Junior Championship this summer at the Martis Camp Club in Truckee, Calif.

   The Friars, however, got the day’s best score as Mike Lammond carded a 34 to claim individual medalist honors for the day. Kevin McGeary matched Davis’ 35 for Malvern Prep. Mike Szipszky had a 36, Brendan Bacskai, who leads Berman in the overall individual standings, had a 38, and Brendan Hallinan had a 41 to give the Friars a 219 total.

   Otis Baker matched Berman’s 35 for Haverford School, which finished 11 shots back of Malvern Prep at 230. Also scoring for the Fords were Jay Losty with a 38, Ryan Tetrault with a 39, Jack Henderson with a 41 and either/or Jake Van Arkel or Ryan Bowman, both of whom had a 42. 

   With two mini-tournaments to go the Fords and the Friars have separated themselves from the pack.

 Haverford School holds a narrow advantage with an 18-2-0 mark and Malvern Prep is at 17-2-1. Penn Charter hosts league in mini-tournament No. 5 Tuesday at Huntingdon Valley Country Club.

   Episcopal Academy, which was led by a 37 by Jack Cassidy, was nosed out for third at Gulph Mills as the Churchmen’s 245 total was two shots back of Chestnut Hill Academy’s 243.

   Also scoring for the Churchmen were Andrew Jannetta with a 39, J. Nolan Perry with a 41, Trey Croney and Joe Chambers with 42s and Chris McConnell with a 43. Episcopal still holds third place in the overall standings with a 10-9-1  mark.

   By the way, somewhere during a busy week of scholastic golf --  the Golf Association of Philadelphia didn’t specify the day – Berman edged Wissahickon’s Jalen Griffin, 73-74, in an 18-hole playoff at Talamore Country Club, Griffin’s home track, to capture the Harry Hammond Award, GAP’s junior stroke-play championship.

   The Harry Hammond is calculated with a player’s qualifying score at the Boys’ Championship qualifying, his total at the Jock McKenzie Memorial and the two rounds of the Christman Cup. Berman and Griffin, who figures to be a factor at the District One Tournament  next week, finished tied at 281, necessitating the 18-hole playoff.

  I’m not sure how the math works exactly, but if Berman didn’t have a second straight GAP Junior Player of the Year award wrapped up, he does now with the Harry Hammond in the win column.

Radnor falls to Harriton, Conestoga

   I gave serious consideration to covering the Radnor-Conestoga match Wednesday when I thought it was going to be a showdown of Central League unbeaten at St. Davids Golf Club.

   What I didn’t know before Monday’s Central League Tournament at Turtle Creek Golf Club was how strong Harriton was this season and that before Radnor took on Conestoga, it was going to face the Rams Tuesday on their home course at Philadelphia Country Club.

   Radnor coach Andy Achenbach didn’t really think his Raiders had the guns to beat either team and he was right. Neither result appeared in the Daily Times print edition, so I thought I’d give you a recap.

   Harriton’s Erik Reisner, a day removed from winning the Central League individual title with a sparkling even-par 72 at the Turtle, matched par with 35 as the Rams ended up with a 191 total that was nine shots better than Radnor’s 200. Garnet Valley, which had a pretty nice team this fall, posted a 207 total and left Philly with a pair of losses.

   Radnor was led by Jack Owens, who carded a 38, while Jack Highfill’s 39 was low for Garnet Valley.

   The numbers were very similar the next day as Conestoga, which had beaten Harriton earlier this season, moved to 10-0 in the league (with a match remaining Thursday against Haverford which I’m going to guess the Pioneers won) with a 192-203 victory over Radnor.

   Andrew Willner and Robert Olseski, two of the six Pioneers who broke 80 at the Central League Tournament Monday, led the way at St. Davids, each carding 2-over 37s. Chris Austen had a 37 and Owens added a 38 for Radnor, but the Raiders couldn’t match Conestoga’s depth.

All-Catholic golfers

   Space limitations in the print version of the Daily Times prevented me from wrapping up the All-Catholic selections this week.

   All-Catholic golf awards are handed out based on a points system compiled during the regular season as well as a high finishes at the league tournament.

   Bonner-Prendie junior Quinn Dolan, for instance, got in under both criteria as he won Monday’s tournament at LuLu Country Club with an even-par 71 and was second by a narrow margin in the points race.

   Same goes for Cardinal O’Hara sophomore Alec Kerr, who was fourth in the points standings and fired a 77 in Monday’s tournament. Teammate Kevin George got his nod based on a ninth-place finish in the points standings. O’Hara’s Steve McAlee also joined the All-Catholic roster based on his 79 at LuLu.

   Joining Dolan as All-Catholics for Bonner-Prendie were Dan Goggin and Bryan Andrusko based on their respective 80 and 81 scores they posted at LuLu.

Kan leads Purdue to 12^th-place finish

   After two years of being the young gun on a Purdue University team filled with veterans, Aurora Kan, the 2010 PIAA champion as a senior at Chichester, suddenly finds herself as the veteran as a junior.

   Kan led by doing as the Boilermakers finished 12^th in their inaugural team foray at the Windy City Collegiate Classic, which concluded Tuesday at Northmoor Country Club in Highland Park, Ill.

Kan, a three-time Daily Times Player of the Year at Chichester, had steady rounds of 73, 72 and 73 to finish in a tie for 18^th at 2-over 218. Purdue opened up with solid totals of 299 and 295 and stood in ninth place after two rounds in the even hosted by Big 12 rival Northwestern. But the Boilers fell back with a 307 in the third round.

   Reigning NCAA champion Southern Cal, which will be tough to beat in its bid for a repeat, took the tourney title with an 853 total after rounds of 284, 278 and 294. But the Trojans got challenges from Oklahoma State (281-282-292), which finished two shots back at 855 and Arizona (285-279-293) and Stanford (287-280-290), which shared third place at 857.

   Backing up Kan for Purdue were sophomore Vinh-Hoa Ngo (76-72-76), who was at 224, junior Johanna Tillstrom (74-77-78) at 229, freshman August Kim (76-74-80) at 230 and sophomore Brooke Beegle (78-77-80) at 235.

   Kan and Beegle are the only regulars back from a Purdue team that finished third at the NCAA Tournament last spring. The Boilermakers finished far back of the dominant Trojans at the NCAA Tournament, but Purdue gave the eventual champions all they wanted in losing by a shot to them at the NCAA West Regional.

   Ngo is a transfer from Boston College while Tillstrom, a native of Sweden, transferred to West Lafayette, Ind. from Alabama.