Losty, Baker, Siegfried make Haverford School tough at the top

   The best scholastic golf league in Pennsylvania is the Inter-Ac League and Haverford School had its dominant run of three straight championships halted last season by Malvern Prep.

   With most of the last holdovers from a 2012 Haverford School team that swept all six Inter-Ac mini-tournaments have moved on  – including two-time Daily Times Player of Year Cole Berman -- the Fords will be fighting it out with the defending champion Friars and possibly Episcopal Academy for league supremacy.

   Haverford School will be led by seniors Jay Losty and Otis Baker and junior Max Siegfried. Losty finished fifth in the Inter-Ac’s rankings, which measures each player’s finish in each mini-tournament against that of every other participant. Baker was 13^th and Siegfried was 36^th. Losty and Baker were two of the eight Fords who finished in the top 15 in the rankings during Haverford School’s remarkable 30-0 run through the mini-tournaments in 2012.

   Siegfried had a big summer, playing against top competition on the Golf Association of Philadelphia and AJGA circuits. He represented GAP in the recent Williamson Cup matches held at Club Laval-sur-le-Lac in Quebec, Ontario. Losty has had some strong showings on the Philadelphia PGA’s Junior Tour.

   Episcopal Academy has a strong trio of seniors led by Trey Croney, the team captain who capped his junior season by winning the Pennsylvania Independent School Athletic Association Tournament at Stonewall last fall, as well as Joe Chambers and Jack Cassidy.

Also on the Episcopal roster are juniors Cole Tastauti and Scott McConnell, seniors Andrew Vetterlein, Alex Pettinos, Brian Lucey and Jack Doyle, sophomore Matt Marino and talented freshman Jon Nolan Perry.

Central League

   Andy Achenbach’s Radnor program is always a force to be reckoned with in the Central League.

Two years ago, a Radnor girls team, with talented freshman Brynn Walker a key contributor, won the PIAA Classs AAA team title. But the girls were in a tough spot this fall with only Walker, who had a spectacular summer that included trips to both the U.S. Girls Junior and U.S. Women’s Amateur and two AJGA titles, senior Julia Curley, junior Caitlin Bullock and sophomore Gabby Kim left to hold the fort.

   Radnor could have been competitive, even with just four players, but it would have left no room for injury or illness or the inevitable bad day for any one of the players. So the team voted to compete as just one coed team.

   That also means Walker will definitely be among Radnor’s top eight in any given match and Curley and Kim will be vying for some starts, too.

   Radnor has a very talented senior in Paul Yun, who reached the Class AAA East Regional as a sophomore two years ago. The rest of the boys who will be vying for spots among the top eight includes Jack Owens, Jack Staples, Tom Hamilton,  Michael Sydnes, Jacob LIberman and Kevin Seits. The Raiders put up a remarkable 175 total in a dual match against Spring-Ford at Turtle Creek Golf Club, site of the District One Tournament each fall – and that was with Walker playing in an AJGA event and unavailable. Yun and Sydnes were particularly impressive that day with a 4-under 32 and a 3-under 33, respectively.

   Walker will be one of the top players in the state when the Class AAA postseason kicks in for the girls. She earned a medal with a tie for fifth at last year’s PIAA Tournament. Two very good players will likely in the hunt when the PIAA Tournament gets under way at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York County in Mount St. Joseph senior Isabella DiLisio, the reigning state champion who added a Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur title to her impressive resume this summer, and Pennsbury senior Jackie Rogowicz, the reigning District One champion who has been the runnerup at Heritage Hills each of the last two years.

   Garnet Valley also has a strong female player in Annika Vandayar among a veteran group of 10 seniors on Doug Grande’s roster. Fellow seniors Mike Stanilka and Tim Reeves have been mainstays for the Jaguars as well. Other seniors on the roster are Stephen Teitelbaum, Darren Schwartz, Evan Riper, Griffin  Morandini, Chris Fedena, Patrick Dailey and Joe Busch.

   Matt Hoppe heads a junior class that includes Mike Argibay, Noah Highfill, Alyssa McMullen and Francine Ng. The sophomores on the roster include Pat Finn, Jimmy Gillespie, Stephen Hoffman and Mason Hudock. The freshman class includes Connor Hale, Andrew Briner, Kunal Gupta, Sean Kelly and Billy Vinci.

   Strath Haven is led by a pair of seniors, Jeff Painter, a returning District One Tournament qualifier, and Sam Brancazio. Rounding out the lineup for Kevin Kochersperger are juniors Chris Byrd, Anders Camp, Alex Brown and Sam Riches, freshman Ben Newlon and senior Jonah Tate.

   Marple Newtown loses state medalist and two-time All-Delco Sam Soeth, but first-year coach Dominic Frassinelli has a strong group, led by juniors Joey Del Franco and Matt Deacon. Seniors Brandon Dejesse, Grant Wallace and Bob Thompson will be trying to crack the lineup. And there is some depth with senior Sean Scollon, juniors Tom Weir, Devon Del Franco, Michael Shevlin and Soobin An, sophomore Kyle Turner and freshman Ben Sjolander.

   Veteran Springfield coach Jim Heller also lost an All-Delco performer in Brian Todaro, but Brian’s younger brother, Andrew, who is just a sophomore, has been among the Cougars’ top performers in the early going. Twin brothers Derrick and Dillon Baun are juniors and Josh Luchon is off to a good start for Springfield.

   Penncrest is strong at the top with a trio of seniors in Griffin Colvin, Cace Strother and Mike Chang. Colvin is a two-time district qualifier coming off a strong summer, particularly on the Philadelphia PGA Junior Tour.

   Haverford High is led by junior Frankie McVeigh. Among the other players expected to count for the Fords are senior Mike Ward, juniors Matt Speers and Nolan Buszka and sophomore Luke Marmer.

   Junior Mike Wolf is the top player on Jon McGarry’s Upper Darby team. Rounding out the lineup for the Royals are sophomore Hunter Taylor, juniors Vinny Lucchesi and Sean Walsh and seniors Justin Adams and Mike Burton.

   Jeff Luby’s Ridley team is led by three-year starters Greg Myers, a junior, and Kyle Fiorelli, a senior. Other players Luby is counting on are junior Chris Durning, senior Colin Kowalski, sophomore  Marc Pecko, and junior Eric Magro.

Catholic League

   At Bonner-Prendergast, Jack Glacken returns an All-Delco in senior Quinn Dolan at the top of his lineup. Dolan, the reigning Catholic League champion, just missed advancing out of the District 12 Tournament to the Class AAA East Regional last fall.

   The Friars have plenty of talented players to complement Dolan, including Brian Kilroy, Dan Goggin, Bryan Adrusko, Mike Ransone, Alex Bradley and Bill Forsythe.

   Cardinal O’Hara’s top returning player is junior Alec Kerr and he leads a solid group of seven seniors that includes Shane Dougherty, Andrew Fisher, Nick Andreades, Nick Alizzi, Dominic Balla, Mike McCuen and Dan Szkudikapski. Senior Natalie Knaus is out for the first time and hopes to improve enough to compete with the girls in the postseason.

   Mike Owsik, proprietor of the M Golf Range in Newtown Square, is taking over the program at his alma mater, Archbishop Carroll.  The Patriots have a mix of experience and youth that includes sophomore Steve Ascareggi, senior Matt Burns, freshman Danny DiRita, junior Brendan George, sophomore James Kelly, sophomore Harry Lownes, senior Mike McCarthy, senior Ron Nolan, junior James O’Toole and senior Ryan Peabody.

Del Val League

   The top player at Chichester is sophomore Caprian Kan, the younger sister of 2010 PIAA champion Aurora Kan. Kan, who was a fixture on Philadelphia PGA Junior Tour leaderboards this summer, hopes to make a return trip to the District One Tournament this fall.

   Rounding out Brad Messick’s squad are seniors Joe Kok, Zach Potter, Josh Speakman and Tyler Walker, juniors Mike Franzini, Dalton Kelly, Jake Lancianese, Nico Lelii and Andrew Ung and freshman Alec Lindley.

   At Glen Mills, Steve Natalie likes what he sees in the early going from juniors William Fulkerson and Ronnie Byrd and senior Tyler Caron.

   Matt Dunn takes over for longtime coach Lew Garrison at Interboro. Aaron Boone and Nate Barnett are at the top of the lineup for the Bucs.

Ches-Mont League

   At Sun Valley, Rick Barry’s lineup includes sophomores Kevin Bailey, Jared Cavacini and Brendan Seleyo, juniors Mike Costigan and Colin Mullen and seniors Darren Sereikis and Hannah Turner, who was the medalist for the Vanguards in a match against West Chester Rustin last week.

Bicentennial League

   Alex Coury takes over the program at Delco Christian and the Knights are led by senior Barrett Simmons. Also in the lineup for Delco Christian are seniors Brian Goebel, Adam Wehry, Josh Ellsworth and Matt Sarley, juniors Wyatt Harkins and James Roulston and sophomore Davis O’Leary.