Behind co-medalist Woad, Florida State edges ACC rivals Duke, North Carolina to claim title in Landfall Tradition

 

   Atlantic Coast Conference powers Florida State, North Carolina and Duke all advanced to last spring’s NCAA Championship at the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa’s North Course in Carlsbad, Calif. out of their respective regionals, but none really made a run at being one of the final eight teams that decided the national championship in match play.

   The three teams battled it out for the team crown in the Landfall Tradition, annually one of the top women’s college golf events of the late fall which wrapped up Sunday at the Country Club of Landfall’s Dye Course in Wilmington, N.C.

   Florida State, behind Lottie Woad, a junior from England and the No. 1 player in the Women’s World Amateur Golf Ranking (WAGR), overtook Duke and North Carolina in a final round that featured rain and wind along the North Carolina coast, to capture the team title with a 2-under 862 total.

   The Dookies took a five-shot lead over Florida State and North Carolina into Sunday’s final round as they opened with a sparkling 9-under 279 and added a 5-under 283 in Saturday’s second round to get it to 14-under.

   But the difficult conditions of the final round resulted in a 13-over 301 for Duke as the Blue Devils finished a shot behind Florida State with a 1-under 863 total. Still, Duke was one of just two teams to finish the weekend under par over the 6,178-yard, par-72 Dye Course at the Country Club of Landfall.

   Florida State had matched Duke’s opening round of 9-under 279 before matching par in Saturday’s second round with a 288 that left the Seminoles five shots behind the Blue Devils.

   But Alexandra Gazzoli, a freshman from Palm Coast, Fla., delivered a clutch 1-under 71 in the final round to lead Florida State to a final round of 7-over 295 and a 2-under 862 total.

   Woad’s considerable talent was on display for Florida State as she opened with a sizzling 7-under 65, matched par in Saturday’s second round with a 72 and closed with a solid 1-over 73 to share medalist honors with North Carolina State’s Lauren Olivares Leon, a senior from Mexico and No. 85 in the Women’s WAGR, each landing on 6-under 210.

   Woad has put together quite a 2024. After winning the title in the Augusta National Women’s Amateur Championship in April, she was the runnerup in the individual chase in the NCAA Championship at La Costa. Woad was a member of the winning Great Britain & Ireland team, which captured the Curtis Cup for the first time in eight years with a hard-fought 10.5-9.5 victory over the United States at Sunningdale Golf Club in Berkshire, England.

   The win in the Landfall Tradition was the fourth of Woad’s collegiate career.

   North Carolina was solid all weekend as the Tar Heels opened with an 8-under 280, added a 6-under 282 in Saturday’s second round and closed with a 10-over 298 to finish two shots behind Duke in third place with a 1-over 865 total.

   North Carolina was led by Megan Streicher, a junior from South Africa and No. 73 in the Women’s WAGR who finished in fourth place with a 3-under 213 total, and Helen Yeung, a freshman from Clarksville, Md. who finished among a group of five players tied for fifth at 2-under 214 total.

   Streicher opened with a solid 4-under 68, matched par in Saturday’s second round with a 72 and finished up with a 1-over 73. Yeung opened with a sparkling 5-under 67 and added a 1-under 71 in Saturday’s second round before struggling a little in the rain and wind of the final round with a 4-over 76.

   Mississippi, out of the Southeastern Conference, finished a shot behind North Carolina in fourth place with a 2-over 866 total as the Bulldogs opened with a 6-under 282, matched par in Saturday’s second round with a 288 and closed with an 8-over 296, one of the best team rounds of the day.

   Ole Miss captured the team crown as a three seed in the Bermuda Run Regional last spring, but never got it going in the NCAA Championship at La Costa.

   Central Florida, in its second season in the Big 12, finished two shots behind Mississippi in fifth place with a 4-over 868 total. After opening with a 6-over 294, the Knights bounced back with a 5-under 283 in Saturday’s second round before closing with a 3-over 291, easily the best team score of the final round.

   UCF failed to advance to the NCAA Championship as a five seed at the Bermuda Run Regional last spring.

   North Carolina State, behind the individual champion Olivares Leon, finished four shots behind UCF in sixth place with an 8-over 872 total. The Wolfpack opened with a 3-over 291, added a 2-under 286 in Saturday’s second round and closed with a 7-over 295, one of the better team rounds in the final round.

   Olivares Leon bettered par each day on the Dye Course as she opened with a 3-under 69, added a 2-under 70 in the second round and finished up with a solid 1-under 71 to get a share of medalist honors with Woad at 6-under 210. It was the third career collegiate victory for Olivares Leon.

   Clemson, another ACC power, and Michigan State, out of the Big Ten, finished in a tie for seventh place, each ending up two shots behind N.C. State with a 10-over 874 total.

   The Tigers opened with a 1-under 287 and added a 2-under 286 in Saturday’s second round before struggling to a 301 in the final round. Clemson was the only ACC team to reach the match-play bracket in the NCAA Championship at La Costa last spring, the Tigers falling to Southern California in the quarterfinals.

   The Spartans bounced back from an opening round of 3-over 291 with a 7-under 281 in Saturday’s second round before struggling in the final round with a 302. Michigan State advanced to the NCAA Championship at La Costa last spring as a five seed out of the East Lansing Regional on its home course.

   Penn State, another Big Ten entry, closed out its fall campaign by finishing in 16^th place in the tough 17-team field with a 61-over 925 total. The Nittany Lions opened with a 310, had their best round of the weekend, a 303, in Saturday’s second round and finished up with a 312.

   Backing up Woad for Florida State was Sophia Fullbrook, a freshman from England who ended up among a trio of players tied for 22^nd place with a 2-over 218 total. After matching par in the opening round with a 72, Fullbrook carded a 1-under 71 in Saturday’s second round before closing with a 3-over 75.

   Kaylah Williams, a senior from South Africa, finished in a tie for 25^th place for the Seminoles with a 3-over 219 total as she, like Fullbrook, added a 1-under 71 in Saturday’s second round to an opening round of even-par 72. Williams then closed with a 4-over 76.

   Christina Surcey, a freshman from Cartersville, Ga., finished in the group tied for 27^th place with a 4-over 220 total. Surcey opened with a 2-under 70 and added a 2-over 74 in Saturday’s second round before closing with a 76.

   Gazzoli was a third freshman in the Florida State lineup and she came up big with her final round of 1-under 71. Gazzoli had struggled a little in the first two rounds with a pair of 3-over 75s and ended up among the group tied for 37^th place with a 6-over 222 total.

   SEC power South Carolina didn’t send its whole team, but Sophia Burnett, a graduate student from Bluffton, S.C., competed as an individual in the Landfall Tradition and finished in third place in the individual standings with a 4-under 212 total that left her two shots behind the co-medalists, Woad and Olivares Leon.

   Burnett held the individual lead going into the final round after she added a 5-under 67 in Saturday’s second round to her opening-round 68. Burnett struggled in the tough conditions of the final round as she closed with a 5-over 77.

   Sharing fifth place with North Carolina’s Yeung at 2-under were Michigan State’s Brooke Biermann, a senior from Wildwood, Mo., Furman’s Audrey Ryu, a sophomore from Dublin, Ohio, and Duke’s talented sophomore, Katie Li of Basking Ridge, N.J.

   Biermann bounced back from an opening round of 3-over 75 with a 3-under 69 in Saturday’s second round before finishing up with a 2-under 70 that matched Ryu for the low round of the day. Ryu had matched par in the first two rounds with back-to-back 72s before closing with her 2-under 70.

   Li was only two shots behind Burnett entering the final round as she opened with a sparkling 5-under 67 and added a 2-under 70 in Saturday’s second round. Li struggled in the final round’s wind and rain and finished up with a 5-over 77.

   Anna Canado Espinal, a freshman from Spain, and Andie Smith, a junior from Hobe Sound, Fla., gave Duke two more finishers inside the top 10 as they ended up among a group of four players tied for ninth place at 1-under 215.

   Canado Espinal matched par in the final two rounds with back-to-back 72s after opening with a 1-under 71. Smith got off to a solid start, adding a 1-under 71 in Saturday’s second round to her opening-round 69. Smith backed off a little with a 3-over 75 in the final round.

   Rounding out the quartet tied at 1-under were Olivares Leon’s N.C. State teammate Marie Eline Madsen, a freshman from Denmark, and UCF’s Mila Sunne, a freshman from France.

   Madsen sandwiched a 3-under 69 in Saturday’s second round with a pair of 1-over 73s. After opening with a 3-over 75, Sunne recorded a 3-under 69 in Saturday’s second round before closing with a 71.

   Duke senior Rylie Heflin, a product of the Tower Hill School and a resident of Avondale, Chester County, finished among the group tied for 37^th place with a 6-over 222 total. Heflin, winner of the Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur Championship in 2023, matched par in each of the first two rounds with a pair of 72s before closing with a 6-over 78.

   Penn State was led by Jiratchaya Jiratthitinun, a talented freshman from Thailand who has been the Nittany Lions’ best player this fall. Jiratthitinun matched par in the opening round and added a 3-over 75 in Saturday’s second round before closing with an 80 that left her among the group tied for 59^th place with an 11-over 227 total.

   I had wrapped up the early part of the fall portion of Penn State’s 2024-2025 schedule, but the Nittany Lions were coming off a 10^th-place finish out of 14 teams in the Evie Odom Invitational at Princess Anne Country Club in Virginia Beach, Va. in early October.

   Jirratthitinun had led Penn State in the Evie Odom as she finished in a tie for 11^th place in the individual standings with a 3-over 213 total.

   In the Landfall, Drew Nienhaus, a senior from St. Louis, Mo., backed up Jiratthitinun as Nienhaus finished among the group tied for 63^rd place with a 228 total. After opening with a 5-over 77, Nienhaus added a 75 in Saturday afternoon’s second round before closing with a 76.

   Senior Michelle Cox, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Emmaus, bounced back from an opening-round 82 with a pair of 5-over 77s in the second and third rounds, respectively, to end up among a trio tied for 84^th place with a 236 total.

   Jami Morris, a senior from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, finished in 91^st place with a 242 total as she sandwiched an 84 in Saturday’s second round with a pair of 79s.

   Rounding out the Penn State lineup was freshman Gwen Powell, a four-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at North Pocono who finished in 95^th place with a 248 total. Powell struggled in the opening round on a pretty big stage with an 89, but bounced back with a 4-over 76 in Saturday’s second round before closing with an 83.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Haverford School's Curran completes fall roll with six-shot victory in PAISAA Championship at Radley Run

 

   BIRMINGHAM TOWNSHIP – With Halloween upon us, there’s only one way to describe how good Sean Curran, a junior at The Haverford School, was in Monday’s Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association Championship at Radley Run Country Club: Scary good.

   Curran had established himself as the best player in the Inter-Ac League by piling up the most points during the six invitationals that make up the league’s regular season.

   In last week’s Bert Linton Invitational for the Inter-Ac’s individual championship at Whitemarsh Valley Country Club, Curran drove that point home with a resounding six-shot victory, firing a 5-under-par 67 over a tough layout designed by legendary golf course architect George Thomas.

   Monday at Radley Run, Curran did it again, rolling to another six-shot victory with a sizzling 5-under 67 over the 6,392-yard, par-72 Radley Run layout outside of West Chester.

   I didn’t get a chance to make it to Whitemarsh Valley last week, but with the PAISAA Championship returning to Radley Run for a second straight year not too far away from my Chester County base, I snuck over there to get a look at an emerging star in Curran. I was not disappointed.

   I caught the last seven holes of Curran’s round, a stretch during which he went 3-under. If anybody else was hanging around with a chance to win the PAISAA individual crown, Curran put those hopes to rest with that impressive closing flourish over a Radley Run layout that was in perfect condition on a spectacular late October day.

   “The putter’s really been working lately,” Curran said after completing another dominant performance.

   The kid is a member at Merion Golf Club, so fast greens are not going to intimidate him. They were reportedly fast at Whitemarsh Valley last week and they were pretty quick Monday at Radley Run.

   Curran finished six shots in front of his teammate, senior J.P. Hoban, whose 1-over 73 was pretty good, but not in the same zip code as Curran.

   Curran and Hoban led the way as Haverford School added the PAISAA team crown to its Inter-Ac title. Junior William Forman added a 3-over 74 and senior Harrison Brown was the final counter with a 5-over 76 as the Fords put together a 290 total.

   Teams were allowed six players with four counting toward the team total. Rounding out The Haverford School lineup were junior Nicky Nemo with an 81 and senior Gregor Weissenberger with an 84.

   Malvern Prep, which finished in a tie for second place in the Inter-Ac race with Episcopal Academy and was the defending PAISAA team champion, finished 13 shots behind Haverford School in second place with a 303 total.

   Haverford School head coach Steve Cloran had tremendous leadership from a team that had won an Inter-Ac title a year ago in the senior trio of Hoban, Brown and Weissenberger.

   “We had a great group of seniors, but just a great group of guys in general,” Curran said after the Fords rolled to the team crown in the state prep school tournament.

   Curran, who works with Golf Digest Top 50 instructor John Dunigan, had a good summer. He lost in a playoff in the Christman Cup, a Golf Association of Philadelphia major championship for junior players, at Huntingdon Valley Country Club.

   Curran won the junior club championship at Merion, defeating Episcopal Academy sophomore Liam Crowley in the 36-hole match-play final at the historic East Course, and at Aronimink Golf Club, beating Hunter Stetson, the best player in the Inter-Ac last year at Episcopal who is a freshman at North Carolina State this fall.

   As the fall scholastic season beckoned, Curran made one equipment change.

   “I put a new driver in the bag and that seems to have worked out pretty well,” Curran said.

   Curran started off the sixth tee in Monday’s shotgun start and I got there just in time to see him lip out for birdie from six feet at the par-4 17^th hole, one of the few putts he didn’t make.

   Curran had made birdies at the eighth and ninth holes, a bogey at the par-5 12^th, the only blemish on his scorecard, and a birdie at the par-5 16^th and was already 3-under when I caught up to him.

   A blocked drive at the downhill par-4 first hole left Curran close enough to a tree that he had to punch it out in front of the green. No problem. Curran’s chip shot found the bottom of the cup for birdie.

   Curran promptly reached the green at the 503-yard, par-5 second hole in two and converted a tough two-putt from 40 feet for a birdie that got him to 4-under for the round.

   Curran made a couple of testy par putts, from four feet at the third hole and from six feet at four, to maintain his momentum.

   Curran split the fairway on his final hole, the 413-yard, par-4 fifth, Radley Run’s No.- 1 handicap hole, knocked his approach to 18 feet and rolled the tough, right-to-left breaking putt right in the middle of the hole to finish with a birdie, his sixth of the day against one bogey.

   Forman gave Haverford School three players in the top three as he shared third place with Malvern Prep’s top two players, junior Davis Conaway and senior Michael Henry, each ending up a shot behind Hoban at 2-over 74.

   Conaway, who won the Bert Linton title as a freshman two years ago, was the runnerup to Curran in last week’s Bert Linton at Whitemarsh Valley with a 1-over 73.

   Jimmy Warmkessel, one of Episcopal’s junior co-captains, finished alone in sixth place with a 3-over 75.

   Haverford School’s Brown and Malvern Prep sophomore Colby Komancheck finished in a tie for seventh place, each signing for a 4-over 76.

   Rounding out the top 10 was a pair of players tied for ninth place at 5-over 77, Will Krietsch, Episcopal’s other junior co-captain, and Quin Zuegner, a sophomore at The Hill School.

   The quartet of Penn Charter sophomore Jack Sheward, George School sophomore Jack Forstein, Hill School senior Constantine Kontes and Kiski School senior Sebastian Waugaman finished in a tie for 11^th place, each registering a 6-over 78.

   Episcopal Academy made it a sweep of the top three spots in the team standings for the Inter-Ac as the Churchmen finished 10 shots behind Malvern Prep in third place with a 313 total.

   The Hill School, which plays in both the fall and the spring, took fourth place with a 318 total, Penn Charter and Germantown Academy, also Inter-Ac representatives, ended up fifth and sixth with respective totals of 321 and 331, and Friends’ Central School finished seventh at 340.

 

 

 

 

 

Penn captures team title in Big 5 Championship at Aronimink; Villanova's Pamer the individual winner

 

   It had been since 2017 when Penn last teed it up in the Big 5 Championship and since 2014 that the Quakers had last won the team title.

   But with the rebranding of the Big 5 to included Drexel without resorting to the awkward City 6 moniker – hey, the Big Ten has a lot more than 10 teams and it’s still called the Big Ten, right? – maybe Penn figured it was time to rejoin the group of Philadelphia’s six Division I programs in a one-day shootout on the golf course.

   Might have helped that Villanova, as the host, managed to get the event played at Aronimink Golf Club, the Donald Ross masterpiece in Newtown Square that will play host to the PGA Championship in May of 2026.

   With four players finishing in the top eight, Penn captured the team crown with a 24-over-par 304 Thursday over a 7,267-yard, par-70 Aronimink layout that was buffeted by high winds that made it even tougher than usual. I suspect that wind speeded up already fast putting surfaces at Aronimink. And yeah, the greenkeeper might have challenged the college kids with some of the more difficult pin positions at his disposal.

   It was Penn’s first tournament victory since it won the Ivy League Championship in 2015.

   Max Fonseca, a sophomore from Miami, Fla., and Hayden Adams, a sophomore from Lexington, Ky., were two of the three players who finished in a tie for third place at 5-over 75 to lead the way for the Quakers.

   Teams were allowed six players with the top four counting toward the team score.

   Ben Scott, a sophomore from Manhattan Beach, Calif, backed up Fonseca and Adams for Penn as he finished in a tie for sixth place a 6-over 76. The final counter for the Quakers was an 8-over 78 turned in by Wesley Hu, a freshman from Suwanee, Ga., that left him among a group of five players tied for eighth place.

   Penn’s West Philadelphia neighbor Drexel, which captured the team crown a year ago at Sunnybrook Golf Club, finished four shots behind the Quakers in second place with a 28-over 308 total. The Dragons are in their final year in the Coastal Athletic Association.

   Villanova, behind individual champion Ryan Pamer, a junior from Hudson, Ohio, was another five shots behind Drexel in third place with a 33-over 313 total. Villanova plays out of the Big East Conference.

   It was a bookend individual title for Pamer during Villanova’s fall schedule as he had opened the Wildcats’ season by earning his first collegiate individual title in the Alex Lagowitz Memorial Invitational at Seven Oaks Golf Course in Hamilton, N.Y. over the Labor Day weekend.

   Pamer overcame the challenging Aronimink layout with a 1-over 71 that was three shots clear of runnerup Armand Loscalzo, a junior at La Salle from Tampa, Fla. Looks like Pamer had three birdies on his scorecard to claim the individual crown in the tough conditions at Aronimink.

   I had yet to start digging into the Big 5 Championship Saturday morning when I drew Palmer’s former Villanova teammate Peter Weaver for my looping assignment at Stonewall’s Old Course. Weaver tipped me off that his buddy “Coop,” Pamer’s nickname, had won the individual title two days earlier at Aronimink.

   Weaver and Pamer had helped Villanova snap a four-year victory drought when the Wildcats captured the title in the Golden Horseshoe Intercollegiate in Williamsburg, Va. in the spring of 2023. Weaver’s a good guy and a very good player.

   Temple, out of the American Athletic Conference, was another shot behind Villanova in fourth place at Aronimink with a 34-over 314 total.

   La Salle, out of the Atlantic Ten, was just a shot behind Temple in fifth place with a 35-over 315 total. The Explorers were led by Loscalzo, whose 4-over 74 left him alone in second place, four shots behind Pamer.

   La Salle’s Atlantic Ten rival Saint Joseph’s, behind a 78 from junior Christian Matt, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Wissahickon, was another 10 shots behind the Explorers in sixth place with a 45-over 325 total.

   Rounding out the Penn lineup were George Roessler, a senior from North Palm Beach, Fla. who finished among the trio tied for 24^th place with an 82, and Owen Hayes, a junior from Beford Hills, N.Y. who finished in the trio tied for 29^th place with an 84.

   Joining Penn’s Fonseca and Adams in the trio tied for third place in the individual standings, a shot behind La Salle’s Loscalzo, was Drexel’s Drue Nicholas, a graduate student from Egg Harbor Township, N.J.

   Nicholas was coming off a runnerup finish two days earlier in the ODU/OBX Intercollegiate at Kilmarlic Golf Club in Powell’s Point, N.C. Kilmarlic seems to fit Nicholas’ game as he has won the individual title there twice and was runnerup last week for the second time.

   Joining Penn’s Scott in the tie for sixth place at 6-over was Drexel junior Kevin Lydon, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier in 2021 as a senior at Central Bucks West.

   Joining Penn’s Hu and St. Joe’s Matt in the quintet tied for eighth place at 8-over were a pair of Temple players in Michael Walsh, a senior from Shelburne, Vt., and Ethan Whitney, a senior from Westminster, Mass., and Drexel’s Caleb Taylor, a junior from Woodbine, Md.

   The final counter for Drexel was a 79 posted by Griffin Mitchell, a graduate student from New Albany, Ohio, that left him in the group tied for 13^th place.

   Rounding out the Drexel lineup were sophomore John Keba, who starred scholastically at Allentown Central Catholic and finished among the trio tied for 29^th place with an 84, and graduate student Andrew Wallace, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Harriton who finished in 35^th place with an 88.

   While it hasn’t been quite the fall of 2023 for Drexel, when the Dragons swept to team titles in all four events they entered, it hasn’t been bad for head coach Ben Feld’s team.

   I did manage to sneak a post in Drexel’s victory in the Temple Invitational at The 1912 Club in September, the second straight year the Dragons have won the title in that event. Nicholas lost in a playoff for the title in that event.

   And Nicholas’ runnerup finish in last week’s ODU/OBX Intercollegiate led Drexel to a third-place finish in the team standings.

   Backing up Pamer for Villanova was junior Matt Zerfass, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at Emmaus who moved from City Line Avenue after two years at Saint Joseph’s to the Main Line to join the Wildcats this season. Zerfass finished in the group tied for 16^th place with an 80.

   Nathan Marion, a sophomore from San Antonio, Texas, and Joshua Lavely, a junior from Kewadin, Mich., rounded out the counters for Villanova as each recorded an 81 to finish among the group tied for 20^th place.

   Rounding out the Villanova lineup was Vibhav Alokim, a freshman from Ypsilanti, Mich. who finished among the trio tied for 24^th place with an 82.

   I haven’t been able to get to any of Villanova’s tournament results this fall, but head coach James Wilkes Wildcats have played well, particularly Pamer.

   Led by Pamer’s individual title, Villanova finished in fourth place out of 15 teams in the Alex Lagowitz.

   Pamer finished in a tie for seventh place at Bethpage State Park’s Red and Black courses to help the Wildcats finish in ninth place in The Doc Gimmler.

   The freshman Alokim finished in 11^th place individually to help Villanova end up in a tie for sixth place in the UConn Invitational, hosted by the Wildcats’ Big East rival at GreatHorse Golf Course in Hampden, Mass.

   Pamer finished in a tie for 10^th place with a 7-over 220 total at Echo Lake Country Club in Westfield, N.J. as Villanova ended up in 12^th place in the Georgetown Intercollegiate, hosted by another of the Wildcats’ Big East rivals.

   Two days before the Big 5 Championship, Pamer wrapped up a tie for sixth place with a 7-over 217 total as Villanova concluded a trip to Long Island and Nassau Country Club by finishing in a tie for sixth in the team standings in the Nassau Intercollegiate.

   Backing up Walsh and Whitney for Temple were the Owls’ final two counters, Jake Naese, a senior from Bradenton, Fla., and senior Joey Morganti, who was a scholastic standout at St. Joseph’s Prep, as they both landed among the group tied for 13^th place with a 79.

   Morganti was the defending individual champion in the Big 5 Championship, having defeated Nicholas in a playoff a year ago at Sunnybrook.

   Rounding out the Temple lineup were Aidan Emmerich, a senior from Swampscott, Mass. who finished among the group tied for 16^th place with an 80, and sophomore Ben Saggers, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier as a senior at Bishop Shanahan in 2021 who finished in a tie for 27^th place with an 83.

   The highlight of the fall campaign for head coach Brian Quinn’s Owls was the final round of the Ironwood Collegiate Classic, which wrapped up Oct. 1^st at Ironwood Country Club in Greenville, N.C. The tournament was hosted by Temple’s AAC rival East Carolina.

   Whitney tied his personal-best college round with a sizzling 7-under 65 as he finished in a tie for fifth place individually at 8-under.

   Whitney helped Temple establish a single-round program record as the Owls put together a 14-under 274 to finish in seventh place.

   As I put this post together, Temple is wrapping up its fall campaign at the FAU Invitational in Boca Raton, Fla.

   Backing up Loscalzo for La Salle were Gavin Dosch, a sophomore from Draper, Utah, and Payton Hawke, a freshman from Canada, both of whom finished among the group tied for 16^th place with an 80.

   Senior Alex Gekas, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier in 2018 as a junior at Central York, was the final counter for La Salle as he finished in the group tied for 20^th place with an 81.

   Rounding out the La Salle lineup were graduate student Matt Lafond, a product of the program of Catholic League power La Salle who finished in 33^rd place with an 86, and Ryan Smiley, a senior from The Woodlands, Texas who finished 36^th with an 89.

   La Salle, under first-year head coach Avery Papalia, was coming off an 11^th-place finish in the ODU/OBX Intercollegiate with a 37-over 889 total. The Explorers were led by another solid showing by Loscalzo as he finished in a tie for 15^th place at Kilmarlic with a 1-over 214 total.

   Backing up Matt for Saint Joseph’s was senior Tommy Larkin, who starred scholastically at Cardinal O’Hara, as he finished among the trio tied for 20^th place with an 81.

   Rounding out the counters for the Hawks were sophomore Noah Moelter, who finished in a tie for sixth place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at Central Bucks South in 2022 and was part of the trio tied for 24^th at Aronimink with an 82, and graduate student Steve Lorenzo, a PIAA Class AAA qualifier in 2018 as a junior at La Salle who was among the group tied for 29^th place with an 84.

   Rounding out the Saint Joseph’s lineup were sophomore Tyler Leyden, who finished in a tie for 10^th place in the PIAA Class AAA Championship as a senior at La Salle in 2022 and was 32^nd at Aronimink with an 85, and junior Keller Mulhern, the Inter-Ac League’s regular-season points leader as a senior at Malvern Prep in 2021 who finished 34^th with an 87.

   Terry Scollin has taken over at Saint Joseph’s after Bob Lynch stepped down last spring after 35 years at Hawk Hill. The St. Joe’s program has done a nice job mining the considerable talent from the local scholastic scene.

   Saint Joseph’s was coming off a solid fourth-place finish in the ODU/OBX Intercollegiate as the Hawks ended up with a 3-over 855 total at Kilmarlic.

   Mulhern finished in a tie for fifth place in the individual standings with a 4-under 209 and Matt landed in a tie for seventh with a 3-under 210 total.