ONEIDA – Even before it went to Tuesday’s Section III tournament at Kanon Valley Country Club, the Fayetteville-Manlius girls golf team had met all of its preseason goals.
They were, according to head coach Tom Chaddock, “Be grateful for a season, be safe, have fun, and embrace the process of continual improvement.”
Still, the Hornets found immense satisfaction from earning its fifth consecutive sectional title, given that it was more unexpected than the ones it earned from 2016 to 2019.
Having finished third in the regular-season SCAC Metro division standings, F-M still got the best of undefeated regular-season champion Liverpool and league runner-up Baldwinsville in a tournament shortened from 18 to nine holes due to a weather delay at the start that lasted more than two hours.
The Hornets finished at 174, well clear of the Warriors’ runner-up total of 187 as Utica-Notre Dame finished third and B’ville was fourth.
This was a younger team when compared to the squad F-M may have fielded in 2020, when it had 10 seniors ready to compete, only to have their season taken away by COVID-19.
Adding to the adversity was having seven of 12 matches shortened due to weather. Still, F-M Green went 9-3 in them, and the two defeats to Liverpool and one to B’ville were by a combined 13 strokes.
Ready to go for the sectional tournament, F-M was again led by senior Lucy Fowler, whose nine-hole 37 tied Liverpool’s Mia Avotins for first place, though Avotins would take the individual title in a two-hole playoff.
Another senior, Michaela Papa, claimed fourth place with a 41, one ahead of the Warriors’ Nataly Avotins. Then the Hornets pulled away thanks to a 47 from Alana Isley and a 49 from Madison Krouse. Ava Abruzzese added a 55.
F-M White also had golfers at the sectional tournament, with Madison Brown shooting a 51 to take 24th place and Lucia Melfi adding a 62.
Jamesville-DeWitt finished fifth in Division I and East Syracuse Minoa tied for sixth, with Sarah Burgess shooting a 52 and Jaeda Robinson a 54 to lead the Red Rams as the Spartans got a 50 from Isabelle Chavoustie and 52s from Jessica Griffith and Helaina Scolaro.
In the Division II sectional tournament, no one could catch Christian Brothers Academy, who followed up its 14-0 regular season by shooting 200 to claim the team title, well clear of New Hartford’s second-place 216.
Shooting a 45 for nine holes, Annie Kilmartin led the Brothers, second only to the winning 40 from Westhill’s Catherine Dadey, while Hana Kang and Bella Meade tied for eighth place, each shooting 51, and Aubrey Mills grabbed a tie for 11th place with a 51.
Bishop Grimes’ Sarah Falgiatano, who won the Onondaga High School League tournament at Woodcrest on June 3, finished third here with a 47. Manlius-Pebble Hill had eighth-grader Amitees Fazeli share 13th place with a 55 as Parmees Fazeli finished with a 61.
