Maletto matches par with a 72 in cold and wind at Heritage Hills to claim a Junior Tour victory

    Wilson’s Kayla Maletto made her debut in the PIAA Class AAA Championship at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in Springettsbury Township, York County as a freshman a little more than five months ago.

   The state championship was reduced from two rounds to a one-day, single-round shootout as a concession to the coronavirus pandemic. Maletto carded a 7-over-par 79 and finished in a tie for 12^th place. Not bad for a freshman, although I suspect she wasn’t happy about it.

   Playing in brutal cold and wind in a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour stop Friday, Maletto got a little revenge on the Heritage Hills layout as she matched par with a 72 to capture top honors in the 16-to-18 division.

   Heritage Hills plays to a par of 72 for the girls and a par of 71 for the guys, the difference being the 18^th hole, which is a short par-5 for the girls and a long par-4 for the guys. The girls who can send it off the tee can easily reach the green at 18 in two. Looks like that’s exactly what Maletto did Friday as she punctuated her round with an eagle.

   She made a birdie on the par-5 seventh hole and added back-to-back birdies at the par-4 14^th and the par-3 15^th, which might be the toughest hole on the golf course, to offset five bogeys. If she makes a return trip to Heritage Hills for the PIAA Championship in the fall, I suspect she’ll improve on that tie for 12^th place.

   Phoenixville freshman Kate Roberts had a pretty solid 6-over 78 of her own in those difficult conditions as she earned runnerup honors among the older girls. Kate Roberts, a District One Class AAA qualifier last fall, had a birdie on the fourth hole on the front nine and made birdies on the two par-5s on the incoming nine, at 11 and 18.

   North Penn sophomore Hayley Ekert, also a District One Class AAA qualifier last fall, made a birdie at the tough, par-4 13^th hole at Heritage Hills on her way to an 85 that left her in third place.

   Lillian McNally of York took fourth place with an 87, Silvana Gonzalez of Exton was a shot behind McNally in fifth with an 88 and Paige Damon of Manchester rounded out the 16-to-18 field as she finished sixth with a 104.

   Kayley Roberts, another member of Phoenixville’s Team Roberts, had three pars on her way to a victory in the 13-to-15 division with a 92. It was Kayley Roberts’ fifth win of the wraparound 2020-2021 season. Hannah Kupac of State College was the runnerup with a 114.

   Colin Vineburg of Sparks, Md. continued his strong run of play in the spring portion of the Philly Junior Tour schedule as he made birdies on the par-5 second hole, the short par-4 10^th and the tricky par-4 17^th on his way to a 3-over 74 that landed him atop the leaderboard in the boys 16-to-18 division.

   Vineburg swept both ends of the Junior Golf Scoreboard Dover Series last month, claiming wins at Wild Quail Golf & Country Club and Maple Dale Country Club.

   Downingtown East senior Dylan Gute also birdied the 10^th hole as he carded a solid 5-over 76 to finish two shots behind Vineburg in second place. Nick Mahoney made birdie at the 10^th hole as well as he shared third place with Noah Keener of Spring Grove, each landing on 79. Keener had a birdie on his scorecard on the sixth hole.

   Owen J. Roberts junior Victor Mominey and Will Huntley of Lansdale finished in a tie for fifth place, each signing for an 80. Ches-Mont League rivals Jake Leon, a junior at Downingtown East, and Ryan D’Ariano, a junior at West Chester Rustin, shared seventh place, each posting an 82. D’Ariano was also making a return trip to Heritage Hills, where he finished in a tie for 14^th place with a 3-over 74 in last fall’s PIAA Class AAA Championship.

   Joshua Hiles of Boiling Springs finished a shot behind Leon and D’Ariano in ninth place with an 83 and Noah Mueller of Doylestown rounded out the top 10 in the 16-to-18 division as he finished alone in 10^th with an 84.

   Maxwell Wager of State College got all three of Heritage Hill’s par-5s, making birdies at the second, seventh and 11^th holes, as he claimed top honors in the 13-to-15 division with an 8-over 79. It was Wager’s second straight Philly Junior Tour victory as he was the 13-to-15 winner in a rain-shortened stop at Honeybrook Golf Club Sunday.

   Andrew Ekstrom had 10 pars on his scorecard as he claimed runnerup honors, a shot behind Wager with an 80. Daniel Shim of Horsham and Nathan Eldridge of Owings Mills, Md. finished in a tie for third place, each registering an 82. Both had nine pars on their scorecards with Eldridge making seven of his pars in a 3-over 39 tour of the outgoing nine.

   Noah Shultz of York finished in fifth place with an 84 and Jack Morgan of Elverson rounded out the 13-to-15 field as he carded a 93 to finish sixth.

   Luke McGraw of Boalsburg birdied the par-5 second hole and added four pars to best the field of nine-holers with a 4-over 40. Wyatt Underwood of York had three pars and Lawson Leeper of York had two pars as they shared second place, each finishing five shots behind McGraw with a 45.

   Callahan Harrell took fourth place with a 46 and Anthony Proud of Stroudsburg, Ian Larsen of Glenmoore and Callen Edmonston of Thurmont, Md., finished in a tie for fifth place, each landing on 47. Proud had swept to victories in the coed 12-and-under division in last weekend’s Philly Junior Tour stops at Olde Homestead Golf Club and Honeybrook.

   Ian Rotto of Kennett Square finished alone in eighth place with a 48. Bryn Krosse of York was two shots behind Rotto in ninth place with a 50. Krosse is listed as a Class of 2030 competitor, which makes that some pretty good playing in those conditions for a third-grader. She might play for another 50 years and not tee it up in colder weather than she experienced Friday.

   Tyler Byers, another entry from York, rounded out the top 10 in the coed 12-and-under division as he finished alone in 10^th place with a 53.