Lake Mary girls seek four-peat at state final
Thanks to the Florida High School Athletic Association’s new format for the golf postseason, Central Florida has quantity to go with the perennial quality headed into the 2019 state championship tournaments at Mission Inn Resort & Club in Howey-In-TheHills.
On the boys side, Dr. Phillips (Class 3A), Circle Christian (1A) and Lake Highland Prep (1A) would not have made it into the state tourney final 16 in their respective classes if not for the wild-card slots added to the regional round.
For the girls, besides the record-setting top-heavy combo of The First Academy and Lake Mary Prep, Circle Christian and Windermere Prep also made state in 1A when both would have been left out in past years.
TFA will be looking for its third consecutive 1A state title, but first Lake Mary will shoot for its fourth consecutive 3A crown.
The two-day 36-hole large-class state tournaments tee off Tuesday morning at 8:20 a.m., with girls playing at the Las Colinas course and boys testing the tough El Campeon layout.
The 1A tournaments will be played Friday and Saturday with the same schedule. The 2A tournaments are next Tuesday and Wednesday, Nov. 5-6.
Sentinel Super 6 Boys team rankings
1. Lake Nona: The Lions jump three spots to the top thanks to a 291 round to win the 3A Region 2 tournament at Orange Lake Legends Course, led by Reinaldo Simoni’s 71. 2. Winter Park: The defending 3A state champion Wildcats are not a favorite to repeat based on the iWanamaker stats, but Andrew Clark and Stephen Hickham can drain birdies. 3. The First Academy:
The Royals jump up into the Super Six after shooting 284 in their Class 1A Region 2 win. Sampson Zheng and Mohit Balaji both posted 3-under-par rounds of 69.
4. Windermere: The Wolverines were five strokes behind Lake Nona in the regional but still shot a respectable 296. And they have proven they can go lower than that.
5. Bishop Moore: The Hornets are No. 4 in the iWanamaker rankings in the Class 2A state pairings after winning their fifth straight regional title with a 290 at Dubsdread. 6. Windermere Prep:
After shooting 298 in the 1A regional, the Lakers are among three local teams at the top of the iWanamaker stats for state, just behind
TFA and barely ahead of Lake Mary Prep.
Girls team rankings
1. The First Academy:
The record-setting Royals remain on top, but the No. 2 team closed the gap as TFA had to fight to win the Class 1A, Region 2 meet. Bridget Ma led the way at 69. 2. Lake Mary Prep: The Griffins are charging. They were only four shots in back of TFA in the regional (283-287). Caroline Tuttle and Victoria Zheng are playing well heading into state tourney.
3. Lake Mary: The Rams edged Niceville 290-292 in their Region 1 meet, with Izzy Pellot shooting the area’s region-week best score of 66 to show the way.
4. Circle Christian: The Centurions were third in region play behind TFA and Lake Mary Prep, but their 305 performance was rated fifth best among all of the 1A state-tournament qualifiers.
5. Olympia: The Titans move into the Super Six after Caroline Hwang (71) and Victoria Hwang (74) led their squad to a 309 for second in the 3A Region 2 meet at West Orange Country Club.
6. Lake Nona: The Lions drop a couple spots after struggling a little in the regional (332) but still doing well enough to earn an atlarge bid to this week’s state finals.