Having spent the last couple of years chasing Auburn, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls golf team caught and passed them in 2016, both in the regular season and post-season.
Led by state qualifiers Madison Kingsley and Maggie Bonomo, the Hornets claimed the Section III Division I team championship Tuesday at Kanon Valley Golf Club in Oneida. F-M’s team score of 365 was 22 shots better than the runner-up Maroons, who had 387.
Jamesville-DeWitt, with a team total of 404, finished third, and also had the third-place individual finisher in Lena Jones, who will join Bonomo, Kingsley and alternate Justine Burness on the sectional team headed for Bethpage State Park’s Yellow Course on Long Island for the June 4-5 state tournament.
Kingsley set the pace for F-M. With a front nine of 45 and a strong back-nine 39, she finished with an 84, beating everyone except Auburn’s two-time state individual champion, Lindsay May, who won here with a 77.
Bonomo was steady throughout her round, putting together a 46 and 44 to shoot a 90, which tied Liverpool’s Natalya Avotins for fourth place, each of them just behind Jones, who earned her state tournament berth by shooting an 88 with nines of 45 and 43 to finish alone in third place.
By shooting a 94, Burness, in her first varsity season, tied for 10th place, but won a playoff to earn an alternate’s berth in the state tournament along with Rome Free Academy’s Kaitlyn Mastracco.
May, Kingsley, Bonomo, Jones, Avotins, Bella Facciolo (Utica Proctor), Olivia Evans (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill), Nessa McKie (Cicero-North Syracuse) and Shannon Bunce (Westhill) are the nine state qualifiers, with Burness or Mastracco stepping in should any of the top nine not make it to Bethpage.
Matainining F-M’s strong team effort, Paige Freyer had a 97, while Audrey Putelo and Bailey Wallace both shot 99, Liz Truman had a 100 and Campbell Kennedy finished with a 110.
J-D had six golfers in the sectional tournament. Behind Jones, Zoe Pipines had the best score of 102 (50-52), while Alex Catanzarite had a 105. Lizzie Redmore had a 109 as MaryKate Scheftic shot a 115 and Jung-Yun Kim finished with a 117.
With a team score of 423, Christian Brothers Academy finished fifth in Division I. Lis Kip and Megan McKeen both finished with totals of 101, while Mackenzie Griffith had a 1-6 and Sophia Matrone had a 115. Paige Nicholson contributed a 132.
East Syracuse Minoa had a team score of 470, with Audrey Rivers getting closest to the state tournament as she shot a 99, with nearly equal nine-hole totals of 49 and 50. Hannah Owens had a 114 for the Spartans, with Sarah Moran adding a 122 and Kaleigh Graves picking up a 135.
