High winds, chilly temperatures, occasional rain – nothing was going to keep the Fayetteville-Manlius boys golf team from claiming another Section III Class AA championship, or stop Christian Brothers Academy’s Jack Bellardini from emerging as the top individual at Wednesday’s fall sectional tournament at the Links at Sunset Ridge.
The Hornets withstood several challengers to reclaim the AA team title with a score of 406, with Auburn in second place at 414 and Cicero-North Syracuse Blue, at 416, holding off West Genesee (418) for third place.
“Winning last year helped us,” said F-M head coach Mike DeBlois. “The kids showed up here thinking that we can do this (again).
Throughout late August and September, the area’s high school boys golfers had basked in relatively tame conditions, with little precipitation to worry about and plenty of warm days for matches. Sometimes it was cooler, but it never turned too raw.
All of that changed at Sunset Ridge. They teed off in the morning amid winds that gusted past 25 miles per hour, and it stayed that way most of the day, with a rain shower arriving in the early afternoon to briefly calm things down before the breezes kicked up again. The wind left falling leaves on all 18 greens, too, adding to the difficulty.
As a result, none of the 134 golfers in the field would break Sunset Ridge’s par of 72 – but Bellardini got close.
The CBA star said that he started the round with the modest goal of being among the top 34 golfers (plus ties) that advanced to May’s sectional state qualifier at Colgate University’s Seven Oaks course.
So long as that happened, “I didn’t care where I finished,” said Bellardini.
But with birdies on holes 3, 9, 14 and 18 to offset five bogeys, and nothing worse than a bogey on his card, Bellardini posted a 73, a full four shots ahead of F-M’s Andrew Massa and Auburn’s Trevor Hogan at day’s end. East Syracuse-Minoa Blue’s Kyle Reader, with a 78, finished alone in fourth place.
Bellardini said it was one of the top five rounds of his golfing career, given the conditions and circumstances. He added that he’ll practice weekly during the winter at the Turning Stone Golf Dome and then play daily rounds in the spring to stay sharp for the May qualifier at Seven Oaks.
F-M had lost regular-season matches to the likes of West Genesee and Auburn, so claiming another sectional tournament was far from a certainty. To prepare, said DeBlois, his team went to The Pompey Club on Monday to get used to dealing with hills and high winds.
“We knew that scores were going to be high,” said DeBlois. “So we had to hang in there and grind it out.”
The Hornets did so, starting with Massa’s 77 and continuing with senior captain Ryan Keller managing a 79, the same number that he shot at Sunset Ridge in last year’s sectional tournament. It continued with Tim Zapisek, who was on the JV team in 2013, posting an 81, the same number as freshman Kyle Gilroy.
They all advanced to the state qualifier, as did two other F-M golfers not in the team event – Steve Cachio, who matched Keller’s 79, and Jimmy Barns, who equaled Zapisek and Gilroy with an 81.
Jason Coleman posted an 86, with John Cachio and Colin Sommers both finishing at 86, one shot beyond the cut line. Nick Perry and Erik Badger each shot 89.
ESM Blue was impressive in the OHSL fall qualifier, finishing second with a total of 430, trailing only Oswego, whose 413 managed to beat all of the AA sides except for F-M. CBA was third, with 444, as Jamesville-DeWitt got 458 and ESM Orange’s side had a 486.
Reader advanced to the state meet, but so did Colin Sloan, who had an 83 and Danny Williams, who posted an 84, CBA’s William Ierlan just missed that mark, getting an 88, while J-D saw Patrick Craner shoot a 91 and Frank Mignacca add a 95, the same total as CBA’s Webb Little, but one worse than Webb’s brother, Sam Little. Jack Jeschke finished with a 100 for the Brothers.
ESM Orange’s Tyler Harrig led his side with a 90, with ESM Blue’s Andrew Steigerwald on that same number. Cody Barbuto earned a 95 and Nick Drego posted a 100 and Tyler Underwood finished at 103.
