One benefit of the early departure of area snow cover was that high school girls and boys golf teams were able to have some of their season-opening matches earlier than perhaps they expected.
For Jamesville-DeWitt and both teams from East Syracuse Minoa, a new regular-season format has them playing full-scale SCAC Empire division matches against the three other teams in the league – Auburn, Central Square and Oswego – with each side hosting one of these matches.
They started out at ESM Orange’s home venue, Lyndon Golf Course, last Tuesday afternoon, and J-D won the event with 199, five strokes ahead of Auburn’s 204, while ESM Blue was fourth with 215 and ESM Orange sixth with 231.
The Red Rams’ Lena Jones was the top individual with a 42 for nine holes, five shots ahead of Central Square’s Emily Barnes, while Tracey Edson tied for fourth with a 50. Kelli Palumbo (53), Eden Shiomos (54) and Abby Neuman (55) followed.
ESM Blue’s Giavanna Vito matched Edson’s 50 and shared fourth place, with Carey Sloan posting a 54, Hannah Johnson a 55 and Bailey Murphy a 56. Maggie Saunders added a 58.
Emily Williams paced ESM Orange by shooting her own 56, ahead of Mackenzie Roberts (57), Amber Cardarelli (58) and Isabelle Chavoustie (60).
Their second league match, set for Thursday at Auburn’s home course of Highland, was pushed back to April 23
Meanwhile, Bishop Grimes opened against Westhill that same day and took a 256-281 defeat to the Warriors. At the Links at Erie Village, Brina Deppoliti shot a 60, five strokes behind Westhill’s low round of 56 by Kate Vaughan.
And in boys golf, Manlius-Pebble Hill opened with afine performance from the duo of Johnny Gruninger and Grant Lewis as the Trojans topped Bishop Grimes 213-240 at Tecumseh Golf Club.
Gruninger and Lewis both shot 35, which was seven shots clear of the 42 by the Cobras’ Anthony Falgiatano. Tom Wildhack added a 45 for MPH as Grimes got a 45 from Ben Schultz and a 46 from Louis Pelose.
