True, it had to wait for 24 hours, and it required a change in venue to a far more unfamiliar location, but the result for the Fayetteville-Manlius girls golf team was the same – a Section III championship, its fourth in a row.
And the Hornets weren’t alone in finding undefeated glory in 2019. Christian Brothers Academy did so, too, perfect against Onondaga High School League foes and then claiming the sectional small-school team title.
All the area’s golfers were set to head back to Kanon Valley, site of recent sectional tournaments, when bad weather early in the week flooded the course, rendering it too soggy for a competition of this importance.
So the venue was changed, to Barkers Brook in Oriskany Falls, and pushed back 24 hours, too, so they all teed off on a cool Wednesday morning.
Once things were done, it was clear that F-M was again going to take large-school sectional honors, its team score of 371 a comfortable 19 shots ahead of runner-up Liverpool.
Meanwhile, the small-school sectional tournament had an even more lopsided outcome, CBA relying on its scoring balance to post 445, well clear of second-place Marcellus and its score of 472.
Now the race was on for individual prizes, as the top nine finishers would join F-M in advancing to this weekend’s state championship tournament at Deerfield Country Club in Brockport.
Liverpool’s talented sister duo of Mia and Nataly Avotins went to the top of the standings, Mia shooting an 80 for medalist honors and Nataly adding an 83 to finish second.
It was F-M’s Bailey Wallace and Lucy Fowler both posting 88 to tie Mount Markham’s Morgan Stubley for third place.
And for Jamesville-DeWitt, who finished fourth in the large-school team race at 428, Lena Jones posted a 90 to finish seventh, joining Wallace and Fowler in the state tournament field.
Cicero-North Syracuse’s Amy Krohl finished sixth with an 89. Camden’s Danielle Caringi and Utica-Notre Dame/Whiteboro/Oriskany’s Gabby Papale tied for eighth with 93 as Papale’s teammate, Bella Pepe, and C-NS’s Abby Ainsworth were named alternates.
Two days earlier, at the Pompey Club, the Section III boys golf West division championships took place, and it proved quite successful for both Bishop Grimes and Manlius-Pebble Hill.
It was the Cobras claiming the small-school division team title, led by Anthony Falgiatano, who shot an 83 to finish sixth among individuals.
Connor Alexander had an 86 to tie for seventh, with Louis Pelose adding an 89 to tie for 11th and Ben Schultz tying for 13th place at 90, four Grimes golfers advancing to the state qualifier at Seven Oaks.
They were joined by MPH’s dynamic duo of Johnny Gruninger and Grant Lewis. Fresh off an Onondaga Junior Invitational victory the day before at Onondaga Golf and Country Club, Gruninger shot a three-under-par 69 to beat the field by seven shots, while Lewis had an 81 to finish alone in fourth place.
