Since making his varsity debut in seventh grade, Westhill boys golfer Nate Meisner has made a steady, solid progression in his game.
And that long stretch of hard work paid off Monday at the Links at Sunset Ridge, where Meisner, now a junior, beat a strong field and won individual honors during the the Section III West Division Championship.
Other than a misstep on the 2nd hole that led to a bogey, Meisner played a steady round, quite unlike most of the other competitors. He posted an even-par 72 at Sunset Ridge, claiming the victory by four shots over Jeremy Sisson (Skaneateles) and Mark Murray (Manlius-Pebble Hill).
As a team in the Large School division, Westhill finished second, with 429, trailing Skaneateles, who backed up its undefeated regular-season run through the OHSL Liberty division with a team title here as it posted 419.
Meisner’s teammate, Andy Vadnais, tied for sixth place, shooting an 80, while Mark Tompkins led Marcellus with an 84 and Jordan-Elbridge’s Nick Falcone posted an 86. Each of them advances to the state qualifier that takes place Thursday and Saturday at Colgate University’s Seven Oaks course.
While that was going on, Bishop Ludden claimed a victory in the Small School team tournament – not surprising, given that Sunset Ridge was a previous home course for the Gaelic Knights.
Ludden shot 429, a full 10 shots ahead of runner-up Manlius-Pebble Hill, who had 439. Fabius-Pompey, with a 487, finished far back in third place. And it gained a pit of payback for the Gaelic Knights finishing second (334) to MPH (330) in the OHSL Patriot division tournament two days earlier, on May 17.
Kevin Sierotnik led the Gaelic Knights, shooting his own 80 to tie Vadnais for sixth place. Will Wallace, with an 81, finished alone in seventh, while Tim Murphy’s 86 meant that he, along with Sierotnik and Wallace, are also going to the state qualifier.
They are joined at Hamilton by five West Genesee golfers – Stuart Winn, Sean Stanistreet, Pat Matkowski, Adam Korzeniewski and Ethan Smith – who qualified last October during the sectional Class AA tournament, also held at Sunset Ridge.
