LIMERICK – David Colleran was there every step of the way as
a freshman two years ago as Radnor marched to the PIAA Class AAA team title.
Radnor head coach Andy Achenbach knew what he had in senior
Brynn Walker, who would win her second individual girls crown, and juniors
Michael Sydnes and Gabby Kim. He took a chance by adding two freshmen, Colleran
and Jake Calamaro, to the team mix.
Colleran’s score didn’t count toward either Radnor’s
District One team title or its PIAA championship in the five-count-four setup,
but he gained valuable experience just being a part of it.
Colleran, a junior, took the first step on the road to the
PIAA Championship Monday as he matched par with a 72 at Turtle Creek Golf Club
to earn a piece of the Central League individual title with Lower Merion senior
Will Horn.
The top 21 finishers among the boys advanced to next week’s
District One Class AAA Championship back at the Turtle. While there was some
anxious scoreboard-watching going on among the Central’s top players, the only
question Colleran had was whether his 72 would hold up for the individual
title. It did.
“It was a good experience to see how it works,” Colleran
said about being a part of Radnor’s state championship run. “You realize you
just want to get to the next level, it was a very good experience to have.”
Colleran claimed the Golf Association of Philadelphia’s
Junior Boys’ crown two summers ago, one of GAP’s junior major championships. He
made it to match play again this summer at Spring-Ford Country Club, but fell
in the first round to Nikita Romanov of Wilmington, Del.
But it is playing in events like that are the perfect
preparation for the pressure of the high school postseason.
“Playing good competition is always a good thing,” Colleran
said. “It makes you a better player.”
Starting on No. 8 in the shotgun start, Colleran made a
birdie at 10 and gave that shot back with a bogey at 11. He made bogey at 14
and then made birdies at the 17th and the second to get under par. He made his
only big mistake of the day when he double-bogeyed the par-4 fourth, but a
birdie at seven enabled him to finish at even-par over the 6,375-yard, par-72
Turtle Creek layout.
“I was just trying to hit greens and two-putt,” Colleran
said. “I had an up-and-down for par at 16 and I got it up-and-down for birdie
at the second. I’ve gotten to know this course pretty well. We have tryouts
here. I think this is my best score here.”
Colleran turned to John Bierkan, the head of instruction at
Aronimink Golf Club, to try to improve his game this year and it has paid
dividends.
“He’s worked on me with everything, chipping, putting, the
full game,” Colleran said.
Colleran is an Overbrook Golf Club guy and just being around
all the good players that populate the course on Route 320 in Radnor Township
helps make him better.
“Overbrook’s just a great place to play,” Colleran said.
“You face good competition all the time and there’s a bunch of junior players I
can play with who push me to get better.”
Horn left Turtle Creek after last year’s Central League
Championship as one of the disappointed players not moving on to districts. He
was determined to make sure that didn’t happen again.
“I really wanted to get to districts this year,” said Horn,
who showed up on few Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour leaderboards this
summer. “I knew I had to play my best golf. There’s a lot of danger on this
course, but there’s a lot of holes where you can take out the driver and let it
go.”
Horn also started on eight, although not in the group with
Colleran, and got off to a great start with a birdie at the par-5 eighth and
then another birdie at the Turtle’s tough par-3 ninth.
“It was 191 yards and I hit a nice easy 5-iron in there,”
said Horn, a member at Bala Golf Club who works on his game with Grant
Griffiths of Play-a-Round Golf Ardmore.
He made bogey at 10 and 12 to fall back to even-par, then
made another bogey at the par-5 second, although that was a good bogey.
“I hit it out of bounds there and needed to make a 12-footer
to save bogey,” Horn said.
A birdie at the fifth enabled him to finish even for the
day.
“I definitely felt like I needed to make a statement today,”
Horn said.
Defending champion Ryan Tall of Conestoga and Colleran’s
Radnor teammate, senior Will Condran, shared third place at 1-over 73.
Tall led a remarkable group of nine Conestoga players into
the district tournament.
Also moving on for the Pioneers were Alex Cook, who finished
alone in fifth place with a 2-over 74, Kemp Bassett, who was tied for eighth at
77, Morgan Lofland and Mikey Hamilton, who finished tied for 10th at
78, Connor Loftus, who was tied for 12th at 80, Jacob Manoukian and
Ben Lee, two of the three players tied for 14th at 81 and Lucas Zhu,
who finished tied for 17th at 82.
A couple of talented sophomores, Strath Haven’s Kevin Smith
and Radnor’s Jack Hamilton, finished tied for sixth at 4-over 76.
Harriton’s Max Mezrow carded a 5-over 77 to join Conestoga’s
Bassett in the tie for eighth. Haverford’s Jack Delp posted a 78 to get a share
of 12th place with Conestoga’s Lofland. Radnor junior Blake Stephano
had an 81 to share 14th place with Conestoga’s Manoukian and Lee.
Lower Merion junior Casey Murphy had an 82 to share 17th
place with Conestoga’s Zhu.
Three players came in at 83 to grab the precious final three
tickets to the District One Championship, including Strath Haven senior Ben
Newlon, Radnor sophomore James Quinn and Harriton’s Andrew Wallace.
Conestoga also had the best girl at the Turtle Monday,
junior Samantha Yao, the PIAA Class AAA runnerup as a sophomore at the Heritage
Hills Resort in York County a year ago. Yao matched par with a 72 to head a
group of eight girls headed for Round 1 of the District One Championship, which
will be contested at Gilbertsville Golf Club.
The field will be cut after the first round and the
survivors will then battle for the district title in round 2 at the Turtle. Yao
is the defending Class AAA champion.
The girls Class AA and AAA team titles will be decided
Monday at Gilbertsville and the boys Class AA and AAA team titles will be up
for grabs Tuesday at the Turtle.
Radnor sophomore June Kim finished second with a 78 and
Haverford’s talented freshman, Riley Quartermain, a product of the Llanerch
Country Club junior program, was third
with a 79.
The other district qualifiers among the girls were Strath
Haven senior Lauren Butscher (85), the Harriton trio of Niosha Parvizi (90),
Lauren Levy (92) and Callie Jean Burns (96) and Marple Newtown’s GillYoung Koh
(97).
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