The Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour staged an Elite
Tour event over the weekend at The Rookery North course in Milford, Del.
Unlike other Junior Tour events, there is no breakdown by
age groups with boys and girls ages 13 to 18 all competing against one another.
While many of the top scholastic players are concentrating
on the high school season, a couple of future standouts showed off their games
over the 6,393-yard, par-70 layout at The Rookery North.
Kevin Smith of Wallingford was the lone Class of 2020 player
in the event and all he did was shoot rounds of 83 and 78 for a 161 total that
left him in a tie for seventh. He was joined at that figure by Wayne’s John
Updike, one of three Class of 2019s in the field. Updike had rounds of 81 and
80 to match Smith’s 161 total.
Nicholas Gianelos of West Chester took top honors among the
boys with rounds of 75 and 77 for a 152 total.
Garnet Valley senior Michael Stanilka chose to keep his game
sharp for the scholastic postseason by teeing it up at The Rookery North
and he finished ninth, a shot back Smith
and Updike, with rounds of 85 and 77 for a 162 total.
Chichester sophomore Caprian Kan also made the trip to
Delaware and was unopposed in taking the girls division with rounds of 78 and
89 for a 167 total. Like Stanilka, Kan took the opportunity to keep her game
sharp with the high school postseason only a couple of weeks away.
Kan, Purdue take sixth at the East & West Match Play
Challenge
Aurora Kan, the 2010 PIAA champion as a senior at
Chichester, has begun her senior season at Purdue and the Boilermakers wrapped
a sixth-place finish in the East & West Match Play Challenge, which
concluded Monday at the University of
Michigan ‘s Radrick Farms course.
Kan was undoubtedly keeping half an eye on the LPGA event in
Alabama as her teammate from a Purdue team that finished third at the NCAA
Tournament two years ago, Paula Reto, was in contention all weekend. Reto, a
native of South Africa, finished third in the Yokohama Tire LPGA Classic behind
Mi Jung Hur and Stacy Lewis, the No. 1 player in the world.
With the women’s NCAA Tournament going the way of the men
next spring, that is the champion will be determined at match play after stroke
play qualifying, the event at Michigan was a chance to get a feel for that kind
of format.
Kan, one of only two seniors on a young team that seems to
have a lot of potential, had the best finish for Purdue in Saturday’s 36-hole
stroke play qualifying. She had rounds of 75 and 76 for a 151 total that left
her in a tie for 16th overall.
Purdue’s team scores of 308 and 303 made the Boilermakers
the seventh seed and dropped them into the consolation bracket for the
match-play portion of the event. They earned an opening-round match with Big
Ten foe Iowa, the sixth seed.
A 3-2 victory over the Hawkeyes gave Purdue a shot at fifth
place. Kan was one of three Purdue winners against Iowa as she rallied from a
3-down deficit after six holes to defeat Jessie Sindlinger, 3 and 1. Sophomore
August Kim edged Shelby Phillips, 1-up, and freshman Linn Andersson, one of
three Swedes on the Purdue roster, claimed a hard-fought 2 and 1 decision over
Amy Ihm
Purdue’s bid for fifth was denied in a 3-2 loss to the
University of Miami Monday.
The Boilermakers got wins from Kim, who rallied from a
3-down deficit after nine holes to win five of the next eight holes in a 2 and
1 victory over Kailey Walsh, and Marta Martin, a freshman from Spain who had to go to the 19th
hole to edge the Hurricanes’ Daniela Darquea. Kan suffered a 5 and 3 setback at
the hands of Leticia Ras-Anderica.
The senior season for Kan, a three-time Daily Times Player of the Year, opened last week at the Minnesota
Invitational, hosted by Big Ten rival Minnesota at the Minikanda Club.
Kan had rounds of 77, 71 and 79 to finish in a tie for 19th
at 227. Junior Anna Appert Lund, another of the Swedes on the Purdue roster,
was the low woman for the Boilers at the Minikanda Club with rounds of 71, 74
and 77 to finish in a tie for eighth at 222.
Purdue had team scores of 308, 292 and 310 for a 910 total
that left the Boilermakers in sixth place.
Kan crossed paths with Kansas senior Gabby DiMarco, one of
the two players Kan beat in a playoff at that 2010 PIAA Tournament when DiMarco
was a senior at West Chester East, at the Minnesota Invitational.
DiMarco had a strong showing at the Minikanda Club with rounds of 71, 74 and 76
for a 221 total that left her in a tie for sixth. DiMarco led the Jayhawks to a
third-place finish at 905.
East Carolina ran away with the team title as the Pirates’
879 total was 21 shots better than runnerup Colorado, which finished at 900.
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