One year ago, the Liverpool girls golf sister tandem of Nataly and Mia Avotins both traveled to Long Island and Bethpage State Park for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association tournament, but only Nataly got to compete, with Mia settling for an alternate’s spot.
That’s not the case in 2017.
Each of the Avotins sisters easily made it to the main state tournament field during Tuesday’s Section III championships at Kanon Valley Country Club in Oneida, where for the third year in a row Cicero-North Syracuse golfer Nessa McKie snared the final state qualifying spot.
On a Kanon Valley made longer by hard rains the previous two days, Nataly Avotins shot an 81, with nine-hole totals of 41 and 40, that put her in third place. Mia Avotins was close behind, her nines of 43 and 42 leading to an 85 and solo fifth place.
Meanwhile, McKie, who needed a playoff to get the ninth spot in 2015 and finished ninth again in 2016, struggled on the front nine with a 48, but got a back-nine 43 to finish at 91 and, remarkably, earn a third straight ninth-place finish, one ahead of East Syracuse Minoa’s Audrey Rivers and New Hartford’s Belle Previte.
They all trailed Auburn’s three-time state champion, Lindsay May, who blazed through Kanon Valley with a 68, including a near-ace on the par-three 5th hole, to win the individual title by an astonishing 11 shots.
From a team standpoint, Liverpool, reflecting two close regular-season battles decided by a combined five strokes, shot 392 to claim second place in Division I, four shots ahead of C-NS (396), who finished third.
Both were far back of Fayetteville-Manlius, who avenged a loss to Liverpool one week earlier by shooting a team score of 341 to pull away for the team sectional title.
Three Hornets – Maggie Bonomo (79), Madison Kingsley (83) and Bailey Wallace (86) – finished in the top six and will be in the state tournament with McKie, the Avotins sisters, May, Olivia Evans (Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) and Mary Colella (Marcellus).
Elsewhere for Liverpool, Mia Latifagic finished with a 110, while Aliah Debejian shot a 116. For C-NS, Morgan Siechen, shooting a 96, finished five shots out of a state qualifying spot as Jordan Himes posted 102, Abby Ainsworth had a 107 and Lexi Miller had a 109.
