West Genesee’s five-year quest to add a second Section III Class AA championship to the one it earned in 2010 finally ended – by the narrowest margin possible.
The Wildcats held off Auburn by a single shot to earn the sectional title Wednesday at Arrowhead Golf Club in East Syracuse, also fending off Cicero-North Syracuse Blue by two shots.
“These guys fed off each other all season,” said WG head coach Mike Wolfe. “The team chemistry was huge.”
That it ended up so close was not a surprise to anyone. A vast majority of the regular-season matches that involved the CNY Counties League’s top teams, including WG, Auburn, C-NS Blue and two-time defending sectional champion Fayetteville-Manlius, featured close margins.
Also, the Wildcats and Maroons ended up tied for first in the regular-season league standings, each of them with 12-2 league records. WG and Auburn also split their two head-to-head matches.
All told, the Wildcats brought 11 golfers to Arrowhead, but only six could compete in the team portion. Four of them were set – Sean Stanistreet, Dylan Plis, Joe Morgan and Ethan Smith.
Wolfe said that, on the way to the course, he asked his top group to suggest which two of the remaining seven would fill out the team sectional roster. They chose Kyle Korzeniewski, a first-year varsity golfer, and John Sullivan.
They, along with the others in the 118-player field, were greeted by an Arrowhead layout whose primary defense was fast greens and tough hole locations. Three and four-putts were common.
This didn’t faze the Wildcats’ stars, though. Stanistreet shot a three-over-par 75, tying for second with Auburn’s Mike May among individuals, two shots behind C-NS Blue’s Pat O’Donnell, who won with a 73.
Now the team battle unfolded, with Plis and Morgan both finishing with totals of 78 as, for Auburn, Trevor Hogan shot a 77 and Ross Burgmaster added an 82.
C-NS Blue had Jon Petrin post a 76 to finish alone in fourth place, but the Northstars’ other scores, from Ed Szopinski (85), Eric Cummins and Brendan Villnave (86 each) prevented them from moving in front.
Meanwhile, Smith shot a solid 81, pulling his team in front because Auburn’s fourth golfer, Alex Burgmaster, had an 85. But then Tyler Ely finished with an 86, leaving the Maroons at 405, since the highest score among the six, Ryan Chalupnick’s 92, was thrown out.
That left it up to Korzeniewski and Sullivan. Since Sullivan shot a 94, Korzeniewski had to post a 92 to help the Wildcats prevail – and that’s exactly where he finished.
Not only were the top three teams close, so was F-M, who finished fourth in Class AA with 411, and Oswego, who was the Class A sectional champion and whose total of 407 was just three shots higher than the Wildcats.
Meanwhile, Dean Matthews shot a 79 to join Stanistreet, Plis, Morgan and Smith in advancing to the Section III state qualifier late in May at Colgate University’s Seven Oaks course. Nick Bove shot an 85, just ahead of Mike Scherer (86) and Mike DiPaolo (89), with Dom Pensabene shooting 111.
A day earlier, WG had clinched that share of the league title with a 188-200 victory over F-M at Woodcrest Golf Club, the Hornets’ home course.
Nick Bove shot a 34, with Sean Stanistreet adding a 37 as Dylan Plis and Joe Morgan each shot 39. Mike Scherer finished with a 41, clinching the match for the Wildcats and setting the stage for a much larger victory at Arrowhead.
Wolfe said the sectional title could have a long-term impact for the program, sparking an interest in the game for young golfers who have a goal to reach a championship – just like these Wildcats did.
