Williams leads PV to section crown
Chico High places 2nd at Corning course
CORNING » The Pleasant Valley golf team has proven to be dominant and had consistent low scores all season long. The Vikings won each of their Eastern Athletic League competitions, with four different players having the low score of the day on different occasions.
On Monday at The Links at Rolling Hills golf course in Corning, PV became the Northern Section Division I champion by shooting a combined score of 393. Foothill finished second at 454, Shasta third at 470 and Chico High fourth at 471.
“Coming in even starting the season I knew we had a team that a lot of talent and a lot of ability, but then at the end of the first couple tournaments when you first actually see it in play then you realize that we’ve got a great chance to be a top notch team,” said Pleasant Valley coach David Crawford.
The No. 1 golfer and captain for the Vikings, senior Landon Williams, led all scorers for PV with a 70. Fellow PV senior Kiefer Zelenski shot a 77 and Jordan Boles shot a 79, the only three golfers
amongst any of the teams competing to shoot under 80. PV’s Aneil Sandhu shot an 80 and had the fourth lowest, and Chico High’s Matt Sayer’s 81 was the best amongst any non-PV contestants.
Crawford said the strength of PV’s team is how many good players who could rise to the top at any moment, a good problem to have for any coach.
“You don’t know who is going to be the throwout score, so that’s perfect,” Crawford said regarding score cards that throw out the worst score of the six competing each match. “If you want team strength, you want to know this guy’s not always going to be our best and this guy’s not always going to be our throw out score. You want all of those guys thinking they’re going to contribute.”
Looking back at the last four years, Williams said it is a really awesome feeling seeing how far he and Zelenski have come on the road together.
“Coming in as a freshman, me and Kiefer we would come in as freshman and were No. 3 and 4 on the team. To come in as a freshman we were shooting low 80s consistently, it was big for us,” Williams said. “To see where we’re at now, Kiefer played Wilcox (Oaks Golf Club) as our sixth man and he shot a 77. I think he was fourth for the tournament. For him to do that and me to shoot 70, it just shows how much we’ve excelled.”
Williams won a NSCIF D-I championship his freshman year as well, but for Crawford, this year’s championship has extra meaning. The last two seasons were limited or canceled for the boys golf program, and Crawford felt PV had a strong chance at winning it both of those years as well.
“So for my seniors this is very rewarding,” Crawford said. “And me as a coach too, to have a good season after knowing that we missed out a couple years that could have been championship teams.”
PV’s Williams, Sandhu, Borello, Boles, Zelenski, Andrew Ma, Chico High’s Sayer, Foothill’s Daneil Skeete and Evan Faulkner, and Shasta’s Gibson Bunton were named to the AllLeague team.
Pleasant Valley will now prepare for the Masters tournament on Tuesday at Bailey Creek Golf Course in Lake Almanor, before the NorCal Championship begins May 23 at Berkeley Country Club in Berkeley. No Northern Section team has made it past the NorCal Championship to the state final. Only six teams make it out of the NorCal Championships, with no divisions like in other sports. Crawford said this team has arguably the best chance that a prior PV team has before.
“That’s a possibility, but it’s still something we’re going to have to have a great tournament that day to make it out of,” Crawford said. “To be one of those six teams at the end, that’s what they’re shooting for.”