Well qualified
Severna Park, South River teams advance to states with top 3 finishes at the District V golf tournament
Coming into the District V Championship tournament Monday at Hobbit’s Glen, Severna Park coach Pete Buck was focused on one thing more than anything else — qualifying each of his six players for the state championship tournament.
So as his final girls golfer, Ingrid Wells, finished up on the 18th hole with a score several shots below the cutline, Buck was visibly excited.
“Being able to qualify all six is just fantastic and I think the fact that they are all juniors and seniors really helped in that they knew what they needed to do,” Buck said. “We had one [Emily Screws] that missed qualifying for states by one stroke two years ago, so that has been her mission for two years now. I joked with her after the last hole that she could have eight-putt and still qualified.
“But we have a very good team, one that can manage the course well and can score. I’m very proud of all of them.”
Severna Park finished as the top team from Anne Arundel County — and second-best team overall behind River Hill (307) — with a team total of 319. The Falcons’ quartet of Liam Mahoney (76), Nathan Clarke (78), DA Regala (79) and Tucker McDonough (86) made up the team score, while Screws (86) and Wells (89) each qualified as individuals.
South River (321) was right behind Severna Park as a team with the quartet of Connor Haley (74), Parker Black (80), Daniel Bachara (83) and Aidan Dillahay (84) qualifying for states as well.
The state tournament is scheduled for Oct. 25-27 at the University of Maryland golf course in College Park.
Also qualifying from Anne Arundel County as individuals among the boys were Crofton’s Max Houck (75) and Broadneck’s duo of Liam Komlosy (77) and James Smack (82). For the girls, Arundel’s Angelina Hwang (tied for second with an 83) and Broadneck’s Summer Stroop joined the Severna Park tandem of Screws and Wells as state qualifiers.
The individual tournament winners were each from River Hill, with Benjamin Siriboury shooting a one-under round of 71 to take the boys title and Helen Yeung firing a one-over (73) to finish 10 strokes ahead of Hwang and Glenelg’s Megan Kirkpatrick.
But when it comes to breakthrough rounds, few were better than Haley from South River. The
Seahawks’ junior came in with a seed score of 90 and proceeded to fire 16 shots better than that on the way to finishing in a tie for third place.
At one point early in his back nine, following a birdie on the par 4 third, Haley was sitting at two-under-par and tied for the lead.
“I’m not going to lie, I was super surprised by my score. This morning on the range, I don’t think I hit one good shot but I guess I just got all the bad ones out so I could play well on the course,” he said. “It was just one of those days where I kept hitting good shots.”
There were a couple hiccups down the stretch, but the 74 total is still the best competitive round Haley has posted in his career, “by far.”
His efforts helped South River significantly lower its team score compared to the Anne Arundel county tournament.
“Qualifying as a team means more to me than the score, honestly, because now we all get to go down there to states together. It’s nice to know that I helped with that,” Haley said.
Severna Park also had the middle of its lineup deliver big days. Mahoney and Clark each outperformed their seed scores to finish in the top 10, helping pick up Regala — who finished in a tie for 12th after a runner-up finish at the county tournament last week.
“Our No. 1 golfer didn’t play his best today, but that’s OK because what we’ve done all year is pick each other up,” Buck said. “When one person has a bad round, someone else is there with a good one. That’s the sign of a good team.”