Every emotion, ranging from excitement to disappointment, was felt by the area’s girls golf teams during
Tuesday’s Section III championship tournament at Oneida’s Kanon Valley Country Club.
A season-long seesaw battle that raged between Jamesville-DeWitt and Christian Brothers Academy swung toward the Red Rams, at least in terms of seeing two of its golfers, Jung-Hye Kim and Alanna Jones, advance to the June 13-14 state championships at SUNY-Delhi.
Still, the Brothers (386) edged J-D (387) in the team competition to finish third. Meanwhile, Fayetteville-Manlius, accustomed to contending for top honors, had to settle for a team score of 395, putting them in fifth place, and saw one of its golfers just miss out on the final state tournament berth.
At the front, where Auburn won the Division I team title again with a total of 368 to New Hartford’s runner-up total of 376, the Maroons’ Lindsay May earned a chance to defend her 2014 state title by shooting a 78, beating teammate Maggie Lesch (85) by seven shots for individual honors.
Those scores at the top reflected the struggles everyone in the field faced at Kanon Valley, starting with an inch of overnight rains that made the course play longer, and continuing right to a large downpour that hit just as many of the golfers were finishing their rounds.
Kim, the Onondaga High School League individual champion, weathered these obstacles and shot an 88 to tie Westhill’s Julia Miesner for fifth place and earn a second straight state tournament berth.
Just behind them, Jones, who is headed to Long Island University-Post this fall, finally made it to her first state tournament, shooting a 90 to finish alone in eighth place.
The drama came when F-M’s Maggie Bonomo posted a 92, and waited until Cicero-North Syracuse golfer Nessa McKie turned in that same total. The tie for ninth necessitated a playoff.
With a perfect drive on the first playoff hole, Bonomo appeared to have the edge, but poor putting allowed McKie to halve the hole, and then get a six on the par-five 2nd to beat Bonomo’s seven.
Still, Bonomo is an alternate on the state tournament team that includes Kim, Jones, May, Lesch, Miesner, McKie, Sydney Bard (New Hartford), Katie Walsh (Baldwinsville and Olivia Evans (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill).
CBA, who won the OHSL Tournament a week earlier at Woodcrest, nearly had three of its golfers make it into the top nine. Annie Fletcher finished with a 94, while Mary Frances Ierlan posted a 95 and Ellie Baumgartner had a 96. Annie Caputo finished with a 101.
F-M also had some close calls next to Bonomo, seeing Mackenzie Kingsley finish up with a 95 in front of Caroline Gaglione’s total of 99. Elizabeth Truman added a 109. J-D’s Jessica Rieger had a 105 and East Syracuse Minoa’s lone qualifier, Audrey Rivers, finished with a 115.
