West Genesee’s boys golf team saw its most important matches of the fall season pushed back by all the rain that started to show up at the end of September.
But that delay did not affect the Wildcats’ performance level one bit, especially in last Tuesday’s big showdown with Fayetteville-Manlius at Westvale where the Wildcats beat the Hornets 189-192.
At the top, it was even. Luke Smith shot 35 for nine holes, as did F-M’s Kevin Ralph. Where the match was won was in the players that followed.
Two WG golfers — Connor Salanger, and Matt Salvetti — each shot rounds of 37, one shot ahead of Hornets teammates Ryan Fero and Tyler Kingsley. Just as a bonus, Bryan Semple shot his own 38 on the Wildcats’ behalf.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Wildcats went to Green Lakes on Wednesday and beat 10 other teams to take the CNY Counties League Qualifier team championship.
Overall, WG had a team score of 397, six shots ahead of Cicero-North Syracuse’s Blue squad (403), with F-M (404) in third place.
Smith shot an 18-hole score of 74 in cold, windy conditions to take second among individuals, one shot behind CNS Blue’s Brad Monroe, who repeated his individual title. Connor Khammar, with a 76, tied fof fourth place, while Nick Holzhauer (77) tied for seventh and Salanger (81) tied for 20th.
Smith, Khammar, Holzhauer and Salanger all finished within the top 21 and, as a result, qualified for the Section III championships, which won’t be held until May 22, 2010 at Colgate University’s Seven Oaks course in Hamilton.
Before that, the Wildcats ripped Corcoran 192-243 in last Monday’s match at Westvale. Brian Sierotnik, with a 37, posted the low individual total, one shot ahead of Smith and Zach Lewis, and far clear of any of the Cougar players.
