Conaway leads Malvern Prep to sweep at Sunnybrook and into tie with Haverford School in Inter-Ac race

 

   With sophomore Davis Conaway taking individual medalist honors, Malvern Prep swept to a 5-0 day, edging The Haverford School by a shot in the Springside Chestnut Hill Academy Invitational at Sunnybrook Golf Club Tuesday and moving into a tie for the top spot in the Inter-Ac League standings with the Fords.

   Conaway, the reigning Bert Linton Inter-Ac individual champion, made birdies on the third and seventh holes on his way to a 2-under-par 34 at the tough Sunnybrook layout, leading the Friars to a 186 team score, just a shot better than the 187 total put up by Haverford School.

   There hasn’t been much to separate the top three teams in the race and, with the sweep at Sunnybrook, the defending Inter-Ac champion Friars moved into a share of the top spot with Haverford School, each sitting at 12-2-1 halfway through the regular season’s six invitationals.

   Episcopal Academy, which finished six shots behind Haverford School in third place at Sunnybrook with a 193 total, is in third place with an 11-4 mark. The Churchmen were coming off a sweep of last week’s Malvern Prep Invitational at Waynesborough Country Club.

   Backing up Conaway for Malvern Prep was fellow sophomore Thomas Ploszsy, who recorded a solid 1-over 37. Juniors Michael Henry and Brody Bell each posted a 2-over 38 and freshman Colby Komancheck was the final counter for the Friars with a 3-over 39.

   Haverford School was led by junior J.P. Hoban, who finished in red figures with a 1-under 35. Sophomore Nicky Nemo backed up Hoban for the Fords as he matched par with a 36.

   Junior Harrison Brown added a 2-over 38 and three Fords landed on 3-over 39 to account for Haverford School’s final two counters, including senior Alex Nemo, junior Gregor Weissenberger and sophomore Sean Curran.

   Episcopal Academy was led by senior Hunter Stetson, who signed for a 1-under 35 and remained Conaway’s closest pursuer in the Inter-Ac’s individual regular-season points race.

   Stetson is coming off a strong summer highlighted by a run to the round of 16 in the U.S. Junior Amateur at the Daniel Island Club’s Ralston Creek Course in Charleston, S.C.

   Conaway has piled up 274 points to lead the individual points race with Stetson in second place with 265 points. The race rewards consistency and a shaky round by any of the leaders can shift the standings one way or the other very quickly.

   Stetson captured the title in the Bert Linton Inter-Ac individual championship as a sophomore two years ago at Bluestone Country Club. He finished in third place behind Conaway and Germantown Academy’s Ajeet Bagga in the Bert Linton last fall at Llanerch Country Club.

   Stetson was the runnerup to Bagga in the regular-season individual points race a year ago.

   Germantown Academy finished three shots behind Episcopal Academy in fourth place at Sunnybrook with a 196 total, Penn Charter was fifth with a 201 total and host Springside Chestnut Hill ended up in sixth with a 211 total.

 

 

 

It was a week to remember when U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur came to the 'Udder Course' at Stonewall

 

   WARWICK TOWNSHIP – It was in the second half of 2021 when rumors started floating around Stonewall that the United States Golf Association was considering using the North Course, the younger of Tom Doak’s twin gems in northwest Chester County, to hold a U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship.

   I first mentioned the possibility at the end of a long post that recapped the men’s and women’s Mid-Ams that year. I thought it would be extremely cool if it happened. Well, it did and it was.

   When the USGA used the North Course for the first 18 holes of the epic 37-hole final of the U.S. Mid-Amateur won by Stewart Hagestad over Scott Harvey in 2016, it let you know that the organization considered the North a championship caliber golf course. It was more than just the weaker of two courses used in qualifying just because the USGA needed two courses to stage 36 holes of qualifying.

   And the North Course, whipped into the best shape I’ve seen it in since I started hanging out at the ’Wall in 2016 by Dan Dale and his crew, again proved that point in eight days of practice rounds, stroke-play qualifying for match play and match play itself.

   It was a chance for the "Udder Course" to shine and shine it did.

   There was some dicey late-summer weather to negotiate and the distraction of a search for an escaped murderer in the vicinity to work around, but the partners at Stonewall and the volunteers who flocked to the far reaches of Chester County to help out – the Philadelphia area takes a back seat to no place when the call goes out for volunteers for a golf tournament – made for an excellent championship.

   As a golf fan, I’ve always been fascinated by a playoff to get into the match-play bracket at a big championship, whether it’s the BMW Philadelphia Amateur Championship or a USGA match-play event. But I’ve witnessed very few of them. If you’re covering an event like that, as I often was during my years in the newspaper business, the playoff to get into match play is something you pick up from the results.

   Such a playoff usually occurs as the sun is setting or, worse, as the sun is rising in the morning following 36 holes of qualifying.

   I was on the bag for Tara Joy-Connelly, the wife of J.P. Connelly, the head pro at The Kittansett Club on the Massachusetts cape and son of longtime Huntingdon Valley Country Club head pro and former president of the PGA of America Jack Connelly, in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Stonewall’s North Course.

   The worst of the weekend weather came early Sunday, the second day of qualifying for match play, delaying the start of play by two hours. After a disappointing opening round of 6-over 77, Joy-Connelly’s scheduled starting time of 12:30 became a 2:30 tee time.

   The forecast was for more rain late in the day and it sure looked like something was brewing as we headed for the back nine at the North Course. At one point, it had that Gothic novel look and the wind suddenly started kicking up from the north-northwest, the prevailing wind at Stonewall, although it had been pretty quiet and from the opposite direction for most of the hot and humid weekend.

   With a bogey at the 14^th hole, Joy-Connelly was at 12-over. She correctly sensed that 11-over might end up being the number needed to get into match play. Trust me, you’re not checking your phone at that point to see where you stand. The only thing you’re worried about is the next shot.

   When you look at the 50-year-old Joy-Connelly, all of about 5-foot-5, she doesn’t shout great golfer at you. But she really is. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone consistently attack the flag with approaches the way she did at Stonewall.

   The speed of the greens at the North Course seemed to be a mystery to many of the players in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am. Joy-Connelly pretty much had the speed down by the end of our first practice round.

   With four holes to go and darkness and probably rain approaching fast, Joy-Connelly played her best golf, getting birdie looks at each of those last four holes. Her 22-footer at the par-3 17^th hole – she had hit it to the only spot on the green that gave you a realistic chance to make a putt – came up just a half a roll short of going in.

   It took Joy-Connelly all of about five minutes after signing her scorecard – the rain was finally falling and the horn sounded suspending play because of darkness – to figure out that 12-over would probably get her in a playoff.

   The rest of the field had to finish their second rounds early on a Monday morning while Joy-Connelly prepared for a playoff on the range at the Old Course. By about 8 a.m. the word came down, eight players vying for the last two spots in match play, later amended to 8-for-3. Joy-Connelly still had a chance to make the match-play bracket.

   You could think back on any number of missed opportunities that would have given you the extra shot that would have got you in. But when you travel to a U.S. Women’s Mid-Am and battle through two rounds of stroke play and they tell you you’ve still got a shot to make the match-play bracket, that’s all that matters.

   Joy-Connelly would be in the second of the two foursomes, a group that would include 57-year-old Sarah LeBrun Ingram, the captain for the last two winning U.S. Curtis Cup teams at Conwy Golf Club in Caernarvonshire, Wales and at the historic East Course at Merion Golf Club last summer and a three-time U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion.

   After 36 holes of stroke play, Joy-Connelly was standing on the tee at the North’s 170-yard, par-3 ninth hole with a 5-iron in her hands with the only shot that mattered. The pressure was as suffocating as the late-summer humidity that hung in the air. And she just drilled it, about 20 feet from the hole.

   Up ahead, it looked like two of the four players in the first group had made bogey and two had made par. Birdie would definitely get you in. Par would probably keep you in the hunt.

   After a shaky tee shot, Ingram converted a brilliant up-and-down, making a clutch eight-footer for par. Joy-Connelly two-putted for par. It was down to 5-for-3.

   With the pin at the short par-4 10^th hole in the back left corner, Joy-Connelly’s approach settled on the front of the green. The USGA website would call it 70 feet, but that was only half the problem. The putt would have to go through the swale in the middle of the green and not be going too fast when it came out the other end when it would start breaking sharply right to left.

   We agreed on a spot several feet right of the hole and then Joy-Connelly, her feel for the speed of the greens still spot-on, rolled about as good a putt as you can possibly imagine to within three feet of the cup.

   Joy-Connelly, Ingram and Johnstown native Kristin Wolfe made pars and earned spots in match play.

   They all knew they were going to draw one of the three co-medalists in qualifying, but that didn’t matter. What mattered is that they had a match that afternoon.

   Oh yeah, and my mug ended up on the lead page of the USGA website for a couple of hours, an image that included Ingram, as accomplished an amateur player as you’ll find in this country. That’s why you get psyched when you know a U.S. Women’s Am is coming to town because you know you’ll be watching some of the greats of the game.

   And I got to experience being in the cauldron of a playoff with a player like Ingram. Think I’ll save some of my observations of some of the veteran players I came across at Stonewall for my end-of-the-year post. Nothing that happens in the next couple of months will top a U.S. Women’s Mid-Am at Stonewall.

   One of the co-medalists was Jackie Rogowicz, a player I had watched in high school a decade earlier when I was covering Brynn Walker, a two-time state champion at Radnor, for the Delaware County Daily Times.

   Regular readers of this blog are well aware that I have kept up with Rogowicz’s career through her time at Penn State and in the years that followed.

   Rogowicz, a scholastic standout at Pennsbury, was as solid as I knew she would be, claiming a 5 and 4 victory over Joy-Connelly, the beginning of Rogowicz’s run to the semifinals at Stonewall.

   After a brief rain delay, Joy-Connelly finally saw a birdie putt find the hole at the short par-4 11^th hole, her first birdie in 49 holes. A lot of really good players would have let the frustration of a birdie-less string like that get to them, but Joy-Connelly stayed patient, kept her head down and just kept playing.

   The other two survivors of the playoff, Ingram and Wolfe, knocked off their higher-seeded first-round opponents.

   Ingram stunned Courtney Dow, a former Texas A&M standout from Frisco, Texas, 3 and 2. All Dow had done was blitz the North Course with a spectacular 7-under 64 in the opening round of stroke play.

   Wolfe, a field staff representative for the Mid-Atlantic region for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, ousted the third qualifying co-medalist, former Virginia Tech standout Jessica Spicer, in 19 holes. Wolfe was a scholastic standout back in the day at Westmont-Hilltop before playing college golf at Penn State.

   Wolfe would win another match before falling to Kelsey Chugg, the 2017 U.S. Women’s Mid-Am champion who would end being a beaten finalist at Stonewall, in the round of 16.

   It’s why you keep battling to get into the match-play bracket because once you’re in match play, anything can and does happen.

   With Joy-Connelly knocked out, I swapped my caddy bib for a clipboard and watched some golf.

   In advance of the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am, I mentioned that Rogowicz and Isabella DiLisio, a state champion at Mount St. Joseph in 2013 who went on to star at Notre Dame, players I had seen as high school standouts a decade earlier, were likely to contend at Stonewall.

   I watched a lot of DiLisio’s round-of-16 loss to ageless 59-year-old Canadian Judith Kyrinis in a 1-up thriller.

   The next day I saw Rogowicz take Chugg to the 18^th hole in a tense, taught semifinal match before also suffering a 1-up setback.

   I did posts on both matches, but suffice it to say, DiLisio and Rogowicz were as good as I thought they would be and figure to contend in the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am as long as they want to.

   The next day, the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am’s eight-day run at Stonewall came to an end when Kim Dinh of Midland, Mich., with Mark Dalton, a regular Stonewall looper on the bag, rallied on the back nine to pull out a 2-up victory over Chugg to give the left-hander the title.

   Anyone who wondered why the USGA would choose the North Course at Stonewall to put on a U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur got all their answers.

   I heard of very few complaints from the players about the golf course. And, as I mentioned earlier, the response from the partners at Stonewall was tremendous. If the USGA was going to put on a national championship at Stonewall, the partners were going to put the club’s best foot forward.

   Probably the most eye-opening aspect of the whole week for many of those who came out to the North Course for the U.S. Women’s Mid-Am was just how good the players are. They found out something I’ve always known: These women can really play.

   As I was preparing to write this post, I looked at some of the qualifiers for the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, which tees off Saturday at Troon Country Club in Scottsdale, Ariz. And there was one Tara Joy-Connelly, a senior “rookie,” taking medalist honors in a qualifier at Ligonier Country Club in western Pennsylvania.

   Take a guess who I’ll be rooting for in Scottsdale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drexel claims team title in Temple Invitational at The 1912 Club; Lehigh's Hurly the individual champion

 

   Drexel opened its 2023-2024 season by taking the team title in the Temple Invitational, which concluded Sept. 17^th at The 1912 Club in Plymouth Meeting, with a 6-over-par 566 total.

   This will be old news by the time this is posted since the Dragons, under head coach Ben Feld, are teeing it up as I write this in the J.T. Poston Invitational at The Country Club of Sapphire Valley in Sapphire, N.C., but it was a nice start to the season for Drexel and there were so many local players involved at The 1912 Club, this is about the closest I’m going to come to previewing some of local programs now that the college season is under way.

   Drexel, playing out of the newly rebranded Coastal Athletic Association – still the CAA for short – put together back-to-back rounds of 3-over 283 over the 7,062-yard, par-70 1912 Club, what some might remember as Plymouth Country Club.

   The Dragons had four players inside the top eight while finishing six shots clear of Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference entry Rider in the team chase.

   Oscar Maxfield, a graduate student from Salt Lake City, Utah, led the way as he earned runnerup honors in the individual standings with a 1-under 139 total. Maxfield had a share of the individual lead following a sparkling opening round of 3-under 67 Sept. 16^th before recording a 2-over 72 in the final round.

   Lehigh graduate student David Hurly, a member of The Haverford School’s powerhouse 2018 Inter-Ac League championship team, finished with the best round of the weekend, a sizzling 4-under 66, in the second round to surge to his first career college win with a 2-under 138 total. Hurly had opened with a 2-over 72.

   Rider had the best team round of the weekend, a 1-over 281, in the second round after opening with a 291 to take runnerup honors with a 12-over 572 total.

   Penn, out of the Ivy League, was Drexel’s closest pursuer following an opening round of 5-over 285. The Quakers added a 9-over 289 in the second round to finish two shots behind Rider in third place with a 14-over 574 total.

   Temple head coach Brian Quinn, who, I’m pretty sure, is involved in the group that owns The 1912 Club, entered two teams, Temple Cherry and Temple White, in the Owls’ home tournament and both performed well, Temple Cherry finishing a shot behind Penn in fourth place with a 15-over 575 total and Temple White ending up six shots behind its teammates in fifth place with a 21-over 581 total.

   Temple Cherry was only five shots behind Drexel following an opening round of 8-over 288 before adding a 7-over 287 in the second round. After opening with a 299, Temple White bounced back with a solid 2-over 282.

   Temple White’s final-round surge was sparked by a 3-under 67 tallied by talented freshman Matt Vital, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier during a standout scholastic career at Bethlehem’s Liberty High.

   Temple, playing out of the American Athletic Conference, had opened its season with a runnerup finish in the Cornell Fall Invitational, which wrapped up Sept. 11^th at Watchung Valley Golf Club in Watchung, N.J.

   Behind the individual champion Hurly, Lehigh, playing out of the Patriot League, finished seven shots behind Temple White in sixth place with a 588 total. The Mountain Hawks shaved four shots off their opening round of 296 with a 292 in the second round.

   Saint Joseph’s, playing out of the Atlantic 10, finished in a tie for ninth place with Mount St. Mary’s in the 14-team field, each landing on 597. The Hawks opened with a 12-over 292, but struggled in the second round with a 305.

   St. Joe’s had opened its season at the Cornell Invitational, finishing in sixth place in the 11-team field at Watchung Valley.

   Backing up Maxfield for Drexel were Drue Nicholas, a senior from Egg Harbor Township, N.J., and Tafadzwa Nyamukondiwa, a senior from Zimbabwe, as they were two of the four players tied for fourth place at 3-over 143.

   Nicholas, winner of the Patterson Cup, a Golf Association of Philadelphia major championship, in the summer of 2022, matched par in the second round with a 70 after opening with a 3-over 73. Nyamukondiwa was Drexel’s low man in the second round with a 1-under 69 after he had opened with a 75.

   Caleb Taylor, a sophomore from Woodbine, Md., gave the Dragons a fourth finisher in the top eight as he was one of five players tied for eighth place with a 4-over 144 total. Taylor opened with a solid 1-under 69 before adding a 75 in the second round.

   Rounding out the Drexel lineup was Griffin Mitchell, a senior from New Albany, Ohio who finished among the group tied for 22^nd place with a 7-over 147 total. Mitchell recorded a solid 2-over 72 in the second round after opening with a 75.

   Hurly’s final-round surge featured five birdies and an eagle at the par-5 sixth hole, offsetting a bogey at one and a double bogey at the par-3 14^th.

    Rider sophomore Ben Ortwein, a three-time PIAA Class AA qualifier at Notre Dame in Green Pond, closed with a 2-under 68 to finish in third place in the individual standings, a shot behind Drexel’s Maxfield, with an even-par 140 total. Ortwein had opened with a 2-over 72.

   Ortwein’s Rider teammate, Connor Bekefi, a graduate student from Toms River, N.J., and Aiden Emmerich, a sophomore from Swampscott, Mass. who led the way for Temple’s Cherry team, joined Drexel’s Nicholas and Nyamukondiwa in the quartet tied for fourth place at 3-over.

   Bekefi finished strong with a 3-under 67 after opening with a 76. Emmerich, who transferred to Temple from Michigan State, matched par in the opening round with a 70 before adding a 3-over 73.

   Leading the way for the Temple White team was senior Andrew Curran, winner of the Bert Linton Inter-Ac League individual championship as a senior at Malvern Prep in 2018 who joined Drexel’s Taylor in the fivesome tied for eighth place at 4-over. Curran opened with a solid 1-over 71 before adding a 3-over 73 in the second round.

   Curran’s Temple teammate Graham Chase, a senior from Charlotte, N.C. who was playing on the Cherry team, also landed on 4-over as he closed with a 1-over 71 after opening with a 3-over 73.

   Also in the group tied for eighth place was Saint Joseph’s sophomore Christian Matt, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Wissahickon. Matt carded a pair of 2-over 72s to end up at 4-over.

   Rounding out the quintet at 4-over was Pelle Ahlqvist, a freshman from Sweden who gave Rider a third finisher inside the top eight. Ahlqvist matched Matt’s splits, posting a pair of 2-over 72s.

   Leading the way for Penn was Hayden Adams, a freshman from Lexington, Ky. who finished in the group tied for 13^th place with a 5-over 145 total. Adams opened with a sparkling 3-under 67 before falling back with a 78 in the second round.

   Backing up Adams for the Quakers, who opened the season by finishing in sixth place in the Alex Lagowitz Memorial hosted by Colgate at Seven Oaks Golf Club in Hamilton, N.Y. over the Labor Day weekend, were Max Fonseca, a freshman from Miami, Fla., and John Richardson, a junior from England, as both finished among the group tied for 18^th place at 6-over 146 total.

   Fonseca recorded a pair of 3-over 73s while Richardson opened with a solid 1-over 71 before finishing up with a 75.

   Jimin Jung, a senior from Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., was a shot behind Fonseca and Richardson in the group tied for 22^nd place with a 7-over 147 total. Jung, who was Penn’s leading man at the Alex Lagowitz Memorial, finishing in a tie for sixth place, struggled to an opening-round 80 at The 1912 Club, but bounced right back with a 3-under 67 in the second round.

   Rounding out the Penn lineup was Ben Scott, a junior from Manhattan Beach, Calif. who finished in the group tied for 31^st place with an 8-over 148 total as he registered a pair of 4-over 74s.

   Backing up Emmerich and Chase for Temple Cherry were Ethan Whitney, a junior from Westminster, Mass., and Michael Walsh, a junior from Shelburne, Vt. who transferred to Temple from Lafayette, as they both landed in the group tied for 22^nd place at 7-over 147.

   Whitney had led the way for the Owls in the Cornell Fall Invitational as he finished in a tie for third place with a 3-under 139 total at Watchung Valley. He opened with a 1-under 69 at The 1912 Club before adding a 78 in the second round. Walsh bounced back from an opening-round 76 with a solid 1-over 71 in the second round.

   Rounding out the Temple Cherry lineup was sophomore Jake Haberstumpf, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a senior at Bethlehem’s Freedom High in 2020 who transferred to Temple from Moravian. Haberstumpf added a 2-over 72 to his opening-round 77 to finish among the group tied for 35^th place at 9-over 149.

   Backing up Curran for Temple White was sophomore Brett McGrath, a scholastic standout at Academy of the New Church who added a solid 1-over 71 in the second round to his opening-round 74 to finish among the group tied for 13^th place with a 5-over 145 total.

   Matt Vital struggled in the opening round with a 79, but got it going with his 3-under 67 in the second round as he finished in the group tied for 18^th place with a 6-over 146 total.

   Junior Joey Morganti, a Havertown resident who starred scholastically at St. Joseph’s Prep, bounced back from an opening-round 78 with a solid 1-over 71 in the second round to end up with the group tied for 35^th place with a 149 total.

   Rounding out the Temple White lineup was Jake Naese, a junior from Bradenton, Fla. who finished among the group tied for 40^th place at 151 after adding a 5-over 75 in the second round to his opening-round 76.

   Matt Vital’s twin brother Michael Vital, also a freshman who played scholastically at Bethlehem’s Liberty High, competed as an individual and finished in the group tied for 66^th place with a 158 total. Michael Vital opened with a 6-over 76 before struggling to an 82 in the second round.

   Also competing as an individual for Temple was junior Greg Hanna, who starred scholastically at Bishop Shanahan. Hanna bounced back from an opening-round 83 with a 6-over 76 as he finished in a tie for 70^th place with a 156 total.

   Backing up Matt for Saint Joseph’s was sophomore Matt Zerfass, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Emmaus who added a 77 in the second round to his opening round of 4-over 74 to finish in the group tied for 40^th place with a 151 total.

   A couple of members of the Catholic League powerhouse that is La Salle, senior Steve Lorenzo, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier in 2018 as a junior, and freshman Kevin Lafond, who represented the Explorers in the state tournament last fall, both landed in the group tied for 53^rd place at 153 for the Hawks.

   Lorenzo added a 77 in the second round to his opening round of 6-over 76. Lafond, who helped La Salle finish in fourth place in the PIAA Class AAA team chase a year ago, matched par in the opening round at The 1912 Club with a 70, but struggled to an 83 in the second round.

   Rounding out the St. Joe’s lineup was Ryan Gorman, a senior from Greenville, S.C. who added a 79 in the second round to his opening-round 80 to finish in a tie for 70^th place with a 159 total.

   Lehigh also got a solid showing from junior Aiden Oehrle, a member of Fox Chapel’s 2019 PIAA Class AAA championship team who finished alone in 39^th place in the Temple Invitational with a 150 total after adding a 4-over 74 in the second round to his opening-round 76.

   Mount St. Mary’s, another MAAC entry, shared ninth place with Saint Joseph’s with a 37-over 597 total.

   Junior Devin Smith, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier for Waynesboro in 2018, led the way for the Mount as he opened with a solid 1-over 71 and added a 74 in the second round to finish among the group tied for 13^th place with a 5-over 145 total.

   Senior Ben Smith, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier for West Perry in 2018, opened with a 3-over 73 and added a 74 in the second round to finish in the group tied for 22^nd place for the Mount with a 147 total. Ben Smith began his college career at Penn State before transferring to Mount St. Mary’s.

   It was a homecoming for Strath Haven’s Debusschere brothers as junior Jackson Debusschere and freshman Tyler Debusschere were both in the lineup for Cornell, another Ivy League entry that finished in 12^th place with a 47-over 607 total.

   Jackson Debusschere, who helped Strath Haven win the first District One Class AAA team title in program history in 2019, led the way for the Big Red at The 1912 Club as he closed with a solid 2-over 72 after opening with a 77, leaving him in the group tied for 35^th place with a 149 total.

   Tyler Debusschere, who capped his senior season at Strath Haven with a trip to the PIAA Class AAA Championship last fall, opened with a solid 3-over 73, but struggled to an 81 in the second round to finish alone in 60^th place with a 154 total.

The Debusscheres both had solid showings in the Cornell Fall Invitational, Tyler finishing in a tie for ninth place and Jackson ending up in a tie for 19^th at Watchung Valley, to help the Big Red finish fifth in the team standings.

   Freshman Winston Kelenc-Blank, a Rumson, N.J. native who played scholastic golf at Peddie School and at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut, was in the lineup for Patriot League representative Lafayette, which finished in 13^th place in the team standings with a 608 total.

   Kelenc-Blank opened with a 5-over 75 before adding an 81 in the second round to finish in a tie for 63^rd place with a 156 total for the Leopards.