Despite the fact that it was her first appearance in the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament, Liverpool girls golfer Natalya Avotins would finish slightly ahead of Cicero-North Syracuse counterpart Nessa Mckie, who was in the tournament for the second time.
They were all at a new venue – Long Island’s Bethpage State Park, whose golf courses include the famed Black layout that has hosted a pair of U.S. Opens. The girls would compete on the Yellow Course, a fine test itself.
Avotins opened the tournament Saturday with an 89, maintaining steady numbers until an eight on the final hole. That put her in the middle of the pack, and Sunday’s final round didn’t change matters too much, Avotins shooting an 88 without a birdie on the card, but also with no score higher than six on any individual hole as she took 43rd place with a total of 177,
Meanwhile, McKie, who had competed in the 2015 state tournament at SUNY-Delhi, birdied the par-three 4th hole early in her opening round, but that was the only birdie she would make in the tournament. Shooting a 92 on day, she followed with a 96 on day two and tied for 61st place with a 188.
Going into the tournament, the big question was whether Auburn’s Lindsay May, a two-time state individual champion, could pull off a three-peat – and she did.
May had an opening-round 70 with four birdies, leaving her one shot behind Lauren Peter (Section I) going into the final round. But while Peter posted 75, May put together another 70 that included five birdies, including a clincher on 18 that gave her a four-under-par 140, which beat Peter and her Section I teammate, Alice Hodge, by four shots.
Fayetteville-Manlius golfer Madison Kinsgley, with rounds of 80 and 79 for a 159, tied for 16th place, with Hornets teammate Maggie Bonomo 29th as she finished with 166. Vernon-Verona-Sherrill’s Olivia Evans (180), Jamesville-DeWItt’s Lena Jones (210), Westhill’s Shannon Bunce (214) and Utica Proctor’s Bella Facciolo (235) were the other Section III competitors in the field.
In boys golf, C-NS standout Jon Petrin made it to his state tournament at Cornell University’s Robert Trent Jones course, where he beat most of the 99-man field and posted a top-30 finish.
Shooting a 79 in Sunday’s rain-soaked opening round that included a birdie on the par-three 8th, Petrin remained steady in Monday’s windy conditions, never scoring worse than a bogey and tacking on a birdie at the par-four 13th on his way to a 78.
With his total of 157, Petrin tied, among others, Auburn’s Mike May for 28th place. Among Section III golfers, only West Genesee’s Sean Stanistreet and New Hartford’s Alec Bard fared better, sharing 14th place with 153 as Bronxville’s Connor Daly, with a 145, beat two of his Section I teammates, first-round leader Nathan Han and Brent Ito, plus Gerry Mackedon (Section XI) by one shot for the state championship.
