Swan, Gelpi the respective boys and girls winners in PIAA Class AA Championships at Heritage Hills

    Team Swan from North East has been a force in Class AA at the PIAA Championships the last few years.

   A year ago it was Lydia Swan defeating Rockwood’s Vileska Gelpi in a playoff to capture the Class AA girls crown.

   This year it was Isaiah Swan, a senior who finished eighth in the Class AA boys individual chase a year ago, who grabbed the gold medal with a playoff win over Matthew Tressler of Scranton Prep as the PIAA Championships, shortened to one round by the coronavirus pandemic, teed off Monday at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in Springettsbury Township, York County.

   The Class AAA boys and girls championships will be played Tuesday at Heritage Hills and, like Monday’s Class AA championships, will be a one-round shootout. The Class AA and Class AAA team champions will be crowned next Monday at Heritage Hills.

   Isaiah Swan and Tressler finished tied at the end of the regulation 18 holes, each carding a solid 2-under-par 69 over the 6,700-yard, par-71 Heritage Hills layout. Looks like they headed back to the tee at the tough par-4 18^th hole for the playoff. Not sure how the playoff went down, but Isaiah Swan won it.

   Isaiah Swan had it going early, making birdies on the second, fourth and seventh holes to make the turn at 3-under for his round. Isaiah Swan cooled off a little with bogeys at the 10^th and 11^th holes to fall back to 1-under, but made a crucial birdie at the par-4 16^th hole to secure his spot in the playoff.

   Nobody on the course was hotter than Tressler was early in the day as he bolted from the starting gate with birdies on the first four holes and six of the first eight holes. Tressler went to the ninth tee at 6-under for his round. But he made a bogey at the tough par-4 ninth hole and never could quite recapture his momentum.

   Tressler didn’t make another birdie and bogeys at the 12^th, 15^th and 17^th holes dropped him back to 2-under. It was still a fantastic round of golf, although I’m sure he was disappointed that he couldn’t take it really low after getting off to a fast start.

   Heading a group of five players tied for third at 3-over 74, five shots behind the top two, was Elijah Ruppert, a senior at Brandywine Heights who finished in a tie for third a year ago at Heritage Hills. The performance capped a strong scholastic career for Ruppert.

   Also in the group at 3-over was Lancaster Mennonite senior Jonathan Glick. I looped for Glick at Stonewall’s Old Course a few weeks ago on the eve of the Lancaster-Lebanon League Championship on his home course at Meadia Heights Golf Club.

   Glick failed to qualify for the PIAA Class AA Championship last year after making it as a sophomore, although he did help Lancaster Mennonite finish third in the Class AA team chase. He was determined to make it to the state tournament as a senior and he made it and had a strong showing.

   The kid can play. He shot 6-over in his first look at the Old Course, despite not getting a whole lot of help from his caddy on the easy par-5 opener. He did, quite memorably, hole out for birdie after air-mailing the 12^th green with his approach from a bunker 100 yards away. Hardly anyone gets it up and down from there, let alone holes it.

   Rounding out the group at 3-over were South Park’s Joey Toth, Trinity’s James Ulsh and Sewickley Academy senior Tim Fitzgerald.

   Shenango senior Tom George improved from his tie for 10^th place a year ago as he posted a 5-over 76 to share eighth place with West Shamokin’s Eric Spencer.

   Another Sewickley Academy entry, sophomore Joey Mucci, headed a group of four players who rounded out the top 10 as they finished in a tie for 10^th place, each signing for a 77.

   Rounding out the quartet at 6-over were Lewisburg’s Nick Mahoney, Northgate’s Kai Carlson and Oley’s Gunnar Wegscheider.

   Devon Prep freshman Nick Ciocca made his debut at states and finished among the group tied for 18^th place with an 80. A product of the junior program at Aronimink Golf Club, Ciocca made a big splash in the summer when he defeated many of the best players in southeastern Pennsylvania to capture the Philadelphia Boys Junior PGA Championship at Bellewood Country Club.

   The win should have earned him a trip to the Boys Junior PGA Championship, one of the premier national events for junior golfers, but the tournament, scheduled to be held at the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., was a casualty of the pandemic.

   I’m planning to head up to Heritage Hills Tuesday and watch some of the Class AAA Championship. Hoping to get some intel on why Ciocca’s teammate Ryan McCabe, a senior who had been a title contender in each of the last two years, wasn’t in the field. It looks like it’s possible District 12, which is where Devon Prep competes as a member of the Philadelphia Catholic League, might have only had one berth in the Class AA field.

   Regardless, McCabe, a Media resident and a product of the junior program at The Springhaven Club, had a fantastic scholastic career at Devon Prep and was the Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour’s Graham Company Player of the Year for the wraparound 2019-2020 season. I’ll get to a post on all of the Junior Tour POYs and Sam Penecale Scoring Average Leader winners in the near future.

   On the girls side, Rockwood’s Gelpi, a playoff loser to Lydia Swan a year ago, didn’t settle for silver this time. Gelpi fired a gritty 2-over 74 – Heritage Hills plays to 6,223 yards and a par of 72 for the girls – to cap her spectacular scholastic career with the PIAA Class AA Championship victory that barely eluded her a year ago.

   Gelpi was the runnerup as a freshman in 2017 and seventh as a sophomore in 2018 before two more top-two finishes in her final two appearances at Heritage Hills.

   Gelpi went out in style. After making a bogey at the third hole, Gelpi made birdies at five and seven to get into red figures. Bogeys at the eighth, ninth and 11^th holes dropped her back to 2-over. But Gelpi got down to the business of winning a state championship, making pars at the last seven holes to cruise to a three-shot victory.

   Hannah Rabb of Warrior Run earned runnerup honors with a 77.

   Lydia Swan’s third-place finish was the worst of her career at Heritage Hills. The defending champion, a junior at North East, was the runnerup as a freshman in 2018 before claiming the title in a playoff over Gelpi a year ago. Ciera Toomey of Dunmore took fourth place with a 79.

   Greensburg Central Catholic junior Meghan Zambruno has had a pretty nice run at Heritage Hills herself. She ended up alone in fifth place with an 80, this on the heels of a fourth-place finish a year ago and a third-place finish as a freshman in 2018. Elk Lake junior Chloe Sipe was another shot behind Meghan Zambruno in sixth place with an 81.

   A couple of familiar names were among the group that rounded out the top 10. Yet another North East Swan, Anna Swan, finished in a tie for seventh place with Greensburg Central Catholic senior Angelika Dewicki, each posting an 82. Dewicki improved on her 13^th--place finish of a year ago.

   Yet another member of Greensburg Central Catholic’s Team Zambruno, Ella Zambruno, shared ninth place with Moravian Academy’s Grace Sanborn, each registering an 83.

   That line of successful Zambrunos goes all the way back to Olivia Zambruno, who is a senior on the Penn State roster.

   Springfield (Montco) sophomore Mollie Young, who captured the District One crown a couple of weeks ago, finished in 24^th place with a 104.