Greensburg CC ace celebrates again
Zambruno captures her third title in 2A
Olivia Zambruno wanted to celebrate winning her third state title after draining her birdie putt on No. 18 to wrap up her finalround 82 at the PIAA 2A girls golf championships Tuesday at Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York.
There was one problem. The Greensburg Central Catholic senior only had a two-shot lead, and there was still a chance she could have been overtaken.
“I knew there were girls playing well in other groups, but I didn’t know how well,” Zambruno said. “I didn’t want to start jumping up and down before I knew what happened.”
As it turned out, the Penn State recruit had to settle for a boisterous celebration in the clubhouse as her two-day, 13-over- par 157 was two shots better than Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic freshman Madie Smithco and made Zambruno the only girls golfer ever to win three consecutive state championships.
Two others, Cimmie Shahan of Spring Grove and Katie Miller of Hempfield Area also won three titles, but not consecutively.
“I wasn’t thinking about the title before, but it’s really great to think back on what I accomplished,” Zambruno said. “I’m just so excited that it ended up this way.”
Zambruno will lead the Centurions onto the course today for the PIAA 2A team title competition. But two other seniors, Peters Township’s Mia Kness and Quaker Valley’s Chris Tanabe, only had one last opportunity for a championship in their senior seasons, and they made the best of it.
Tanabe, a 2014 WPIAL 2A champion and 2015 PIAA runnerup, had the only sub-par round of the day as he fired a 1-under 70 to give him a two-day 146 and a oneshot victory over the reigning WPIAL champion, freshman Skyler Fox of Riverside.
“It lets me go out on a high note,” Tanabe said.
Fox and Tanabe were 2-under on the day and tied for the overall lead for most of the back nine until Fox double-bogeyed the 330yard par-4 No. 16 and opened the door. Tanabe also bogeyed the hole, but held a one-shot lead heading into the final two holes.
Both made pars, and Tanabe joined Sewickley Academy’s Jason Li as the only WPIAL golfers to win a boys 2A title. But where Fox had only played the course a couple of times in the past few weeks, Tanabe had the advantage of making the trip each of the past three seasons.
“You have to know where to miss it on this course because there’s a lot of trouble on every hole and, over the years, especially last year, I made a couple mistakes that cost me,” Tanabe said.
Kness, a Seton Hall recruit, shot the best 3A round of the day with an even-par 72 to give her a two-day total of even-par 144 and a two-stroke victory over Samantha Yao of Conestoga.