O'Sullivan, Vital claim respective girls, boys titles in Pennsylvania Junior Championships

   Ava O’Sullivan had a pretty memorable final season of scholastic golf with Downingtown East in the fall of 2021.

   O’Sullivan battled eventual champion Sydney Yermish of Lower Merion and O’Sullivan’s Ches-Mont League rival Mary Grace Dunigan of Unionville right to the final hole at Turtle Creek Golf Course before finishing in a tie for second place with Dunigan in the District One Class AAA Championship.

   O’Sullivan finished in a tie for fourth place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County and then led the Cougars to the state Class AAA team crown.

   After a year of seasoning at Division II Converse in Spartanburg, S.C., O’Sullivan, playing out of Applecross Country Club, was still eligible to compete in the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship and all that experience showed as she carded a solid 3-under-par 69 in Tuesday’s second round at Lebanon Country Club to complete a four-shot victory.

   Combined with her opening-round 71, O’Sullivan’s final-round 69 gave her a 4-under 140 total.

   O’Sullivan, who is moving up to Division I by transferring to Bowling Green, was solid from the start as she made eight pars and a birdie at the sixth hole to tour the outgoing nine at Lebanon in 1-under 35. After a bogey at the 10^th hole dropped her to even-par for the round, O’Sullivan pulled away down the stretch with birdies at 13, 15 and 18.

   Looks like the Junior Girls was supposed to be 54 holes, but it was shortened to 36 holes when severe weather hit Lebanon. The Pennsylvania Junior Boys’ Championship was being held at nearby Hershey Country Club and the guys were able to get in 36 holes Tuesday, barely, which just shows you how spotty Tuesday’s summer thunderstorms were.

   The Pennsylvania Junior girls and boys championships were presented by Dick's Sporting Goods.

   Bucknell Golf Club’s Hannah Rabb, winner of the PIAA Class AA Championship as a junior at Warrior Run last fall, matched par for the second day in a row with a 72 as she finished alone in second place, four shots behind O’Sullivan with an even-par 144 total. It was Rabb’s second straight runnerup finish in the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ Championship.

   The 1912 Club’s Rhianna Gooneratne, who has earned a trip to the PIAA Class AAA Championship in each of her first two seasons at Plymouth-Whitemarsh, also matched par in Tuesday’s second round after opening with a 74 as she finished alone in third place with a 2-over 146 total.

   White Manor Country Club’s Clarissa Leung, who helped Episcopal Academy capture the Inter-Ac League title as a sophomore this spring, finished a shot behind Gooneratne in fourth place with a 3-over 147 total. Leung had matched par with a 72 in the opening round before adding a 3-over 75 in Tuesday’s second round.

   Leung, teaming with Jillian Burks, led White Manor to the title in the Pennsylvania Junior Girls team competition with a 27-over 315 total.

   I’m hearing Burks will be a talented addition to the golf program at Conestoga this fall. She shaved 10 shots off her opening-round 89 with a 79 in Tuesday’s second round as White Manor finished 36 shots ahead of runnerup Moselem Springs, which had a 351 total.

   Marissa Malosh, a Pennsylvania Golf Association (PAGA) individual member, finished alone in fifth place as she was two shots behind Leung with a 5-over 149 total. Malosh added a 4-over 76 in the second round to her opening-round 73.

   Malosh, a two-time WPIAL champion during an outstanding scholastic career at South Fayette, advanced to next month’s U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the Air Force Academy’s Eisenhower Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colo. out of a qualifier earlier this month at Shannopin Country Club in Pittsburgh.

   Dunigan, playing out of Kennett Square Golf & Country Club, and Overbrook Golf Club’s Kiersten Bodge finished in a tie for sixth place, each landing on 6-over 150.

   Dunigan, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier who helped Unionville claim the state Class AAA team crown in 2020, carded a second straight 3-over 75 in Tuesday’s second round in defense of the Pennsylvania Junior Girls’ crown she won a year ago.

   Bodge, who earned a second straight runnerup finish in the Inter-Ac League individual championship at French Creek Golf Club as an eighth-grader at Notre Dame this spring, cooled off a little in the second round with a 5-over 77 after opening with a 73.

   Phoenixville sophomore Kayley Roberts, a PAGA individual member, had a share of the lead with O’Sullivan following Monday’s opening round with a 1-under 71. Roberts, the runnerup in the PIAA Class AAA Championship at Penn State last fall and who helped the Phantoms claim the state Class AAA team crown, struggled in Tuesday’s second round with an 80 as she finished in a group of four players tied for eighth place at 7-over 151.

   Joining Roberts in the group at 7-over were Ysabel Liu, representing the Philadelphia Publinks Golf Association, Blue Bell Country Club’s Caroline Gola and Butler Country Club’s Grace Windfelder.

   Liu, a sophomore at Millburn High School in North Jersey, added a solid 2-over 74 to her opening-round 77. Liu punched her ticket to next month’s U.S. Girls’ Junior at the Air Force Academy’s Eisenhower Golf Club out of a qualifier earlier this month at Copper Hill Country Club in Ringoes, N.J.

   Gola, coming off her freshman season at Holy Cross, was a scholastic standout at Mount St. Joseph, where she was a member of the Mount’s 2019 PIAA Class AAA championship team. Gola added a 5-over 77 in the second round to her opening-round 74.

   Windfelder, a senior at Oakland Catholic, added a 3-over 75 in the second round to her opening-round 76.

   Moselem Springs’ Kayla Maletto, a senior at Wilson and winner of the Berks Girls Championship for a second time last fall at Willow Hollow Golf Course, finished alone in 12^th place with a 9-over 153 total. Maletto, who had opened with a 2-over 74, struggled a little in Tuesday’s second round with a 79.

   Northampton Country Club’s Matt Vital has always been capable of putting a bunch of birdies on his scorecard.

   The kid got a little spot on The Golf Channel when he broke Sam Snead’s 72-year-old course record at Reading Country Club with a remarkable 8-under 62 in a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour stop in April of 2021.

   In Tuesday’s final round of the Pennsylvania Junior Boys’ Championship at Hershey Country Club’s East Course, Vital, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Liberty, was rock steady with a three-birdie, no-bogey 3-under 68 that gave him a three-shot victory over a talented field with a 9-under 204 total.

   Vital, who will join Brian Quinn’s Temple program later this summer (somewhere along the line I had Vital and twin brother Michael headed for Saint Joseph’s, but I fixed that in my post on the opening round and, more importantly, have it right in my head now) began the day four shots out of the lead following an opening round of 2-under 69.

   But Vital made six birdies to offset three bogeys in Tuesday morning’s second round on his way to a 4-under 67 that vaulted him to the top of the leaderboard.

   If anybody was waiting for Vital to falter in the final round, it never happened. Vital made birdies at the sixth, 12^th and 14^th holes and had 15 pars on his card in a flawless final round.

   The boys field survived several weather delays and barely had enough daylight to complete 54 holes. The leaders teed off for the final round after 4 Tuesday afternoon.

   Saucon Valley Country Club’s Evan Eichenlaub closed with a solid 1-under 70 to finish three shots behind Vital in second place with a 6-under 207 total.

   Eichenlaub, who capped an outstanding scholastic career at Moravian Academy with a fourth-place finish in the PIAA Class AA Championship last fall at Penn State, had opened with a sparkling 5-under 66 before matching par in the second round with a 71 that left him just a shot behind Vital going into the final round.

   Eichenlaub was coming off a solid showing in the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship a couple of weeks ago at Huntingdon Valley Country Club, where he earned a spot in the match-play bracket and won a match before falling in the round of 16.

   Conewango Valley Country Club’s Braddock Damore put together solid rounds of 3-under 68 and 1-under 70 during Tuesday’s marathon double round to finish alone in third place with a 2-under 211 total that left him four shots behind Eichenlaub. Damore will be a senior at Warren Area High School in the fall.

   Caden Blanchette of Cool Creek Golf Club and Michael Lugiano of Huntsville Golf Club finished in a tie for fourth place, each ending up a shot behind Damore with a 1-under 212 total.

   Blanchette, a senior at Northeastern High, was also solid in Tuesday’s double round, posting a 2-under 69 in the morning and adding a final round of 1-under 70 in the afternoon.

   Blanchette was the qualifying medalist in a U.S. Junior Amateur qualifier earlier this month at Chambersburg Country Club, punching his ticket to the Daniel Island Club in Charleston, S.C. The U.S. Junior Amateur tees off July 24^th.

   Lugiano, who finished in third place in the PIAA Class AA Championship last fall at Penn State as a junior at Lake Lehman, was steady all week as he recorded back-to-back 1-under 70s in the first two rounds before closing with a 1-over 72.

   Lugiano teamed with his Lake Lehman teammates Eli Ropietski and Cael Ropietski and Wyoming Seminary’s Nick Werner to deliver a second straight Pennsylvania Junior Boys’ team title for Huntsville. Lugiano and the Ropietski brothers were part of a PIAA Class AA championship team for Lake Lehman last fall.

   Hannastown Golf Club’s Nick Turowski, Timothy Peters of the Penn State Golf Courses and Jack Estrella of Bensalem Country Club finished in a tie for sixth place, each landing on even-par 213.

   After opening with a 3-under 68, Turowski, a senior at Penn-Trafford, registered a pair of 2-over 73s, in Tuesday’s double round. Turowski is also headed to the Daniel Island Club for next month’s U.S. Junior Amateur after advancing out of a qualifier at the Avalon Field Club at Newcastle earlier this month.

   Peters put together rounds of 4-under 67 and 1-under 70 in Tuesday’s double round to earn his share of sixth place. Estrella moved into contention with a 3-under 68 in Tuesday morning’s second round before closing with a 4-over 75.

   Josh James, a PAGA individual member, had grabbed the lead with a sizzling opening round of 6-under 65, but backed off a little in Tuesday’s double round with a 5-over 76 in the morning and a 4-over 75 in the afternoon to finish in a tie for ninth place with Drew Clark, another PAGA individual member, each landing on 2-over 215.

   James, a recent Union City graduate, was the PIAA Class AA individual champion as a junior in 2021.

   Clark, who had opened with a 2-under 69, matched par in Tuesday morning’s second round with a 71 before closing with a 4-over 75.