With the team championships wrapped up, the attention is now on the Individual Championships as the state’s best high school golfers descend upon Natanis Golf Course in Vassalboro.
Class A and B boys’ golfers will take on the Tomahawk course once again, while the Class C boys and the girls’ will try to tame the Arrowhead course.
Participants representing Class C South are primarily from St. Dominic Academy. The Saints placed five golfers among the 10 slots available to the MVC in the qualifier. Justin Keaney qualified last Wednesday with the low round of the day with a 75. Nate Richard, Nick Gammaitoni and Adam White all shot a 83. Brendon Donovan just qualified, shooting a 84. On Saturday he was the co-medalist in Class C in the team championships with a 77.
“If there’s weak point that we need to focus on is that would be the putting,” St. Dom’s coach Michael Lacombe said Saturday afternoon after the team championships. “The short game on the green, we left a few strokes out there if we certainly could get back, we could have won the states’.”
Lacombe said with Donovan and Keaney both having recent success at Natanis, the important thing for this upcoming weekend will be to take a one-shot at a time approach.
The Winthrop Ramblers have two representatives in Anthony Owens and Zac Robertson, as they shot an 82 and 83 respectfully.
Winthrop coach Lonney Steeves said both can have a good showing in the Class C championship if they cut a few strokes here and there.
“It’s different when you get to the individuals, it’s very different, because you stop that team focus, and focus on individuals,” Steeves said. “I know Anthony could be a definite top ten competitor and if Zac goes out and does what he did (Saturday) again next week, he could be right there in the top ten.”
Owens shot an 80 on Saturday, while Robertson came in with an 81.
Mike Kersey Jr. will be the lone Dirigo representative. He fired an 84 to make the state tournament. His father, Mike Kersey Sr., Dirigo’s coach, said playing in the cold temperatures last weekend will help as he heard it might snow this Saturday.
Grant Hefler of Wiscassett and Sklyer Leff of Gould were the other two golfers to qualify from the MVC.
Lewiston will have two golfers in the boys’ Class A tournament. Brendon Croteau and Alex Robert each qualified.
Robert has had some rest; he wasn’t one of the five golfers in the team competition for the Blue Devils.
“He played two great rounds to finish up the year,” Lewiston coach Tom LeBlond said of Roberts in the KVAC Shootout and the KVAC Qualifier. “I was waiting for him to kind of break through, not that he hasn’t played well, but certainly thought he was going to post a lower score. You were sort of waiting for him to do that and it was good to see him to put back-to-back rounds (together).”
He shot a 39 for nine-holes at the KVAC Class A Shootout and was the low medalist at the qualifier.
Mac Kim of Oxford Hills is the other local KVAC Class A representative after shooting an 82. He hit the fairways and greens, and while he didn’t make too many birdies, he made his pars when he needed to.
Kim is playing well at the right time.
“He’s feeling good right now,” Oxford Hills coach Mike Grace said. “He practiced (on Tuesday) and I think he shot a 74 in practice. He didn’t putt real well (on Tuesday), but obviously he hit the ball pretty solidly. I think he’s feeling pretty confident.”
In Class B, Conor Drouin and Cohen Donnell qualified from the WMC tournament for Oak Hill, while Ethan Mason of Poland qualified with an 88.
Mason is coming off an injury.
“He played the first few matches of the year, then he got hurt,” Poland coach Gregg Rose said. “He hurt his wrist with a strained tendon in his wrist. He didn’t play a lot at the end of the year. When we got to the qualifier, he shot an 88 and qualified tied for tenth.”
Mason didn’t expect to qualify, but was excited when they called his name at the qualifier. He was able to play in one match before the qualifier and was able to get in a practice round in at Natanis on Columbus Day.
Locally in the girls’ tournament, four girls are set to tee it off. Stephanie Rodrigue of Lewiston, Markella Gammaitoni and Janelle Bryant of St. Dom’s and Valerie Doucette of Lisbon, who has been practicing with St. Dom’s, will also be competing.
Gammaitoni shot an 84 at the MVC Championship while Bryant carded a 90. Doucette had a 97.
Rodrigue will be looking for some redemption after shooting an 87 in the team competition.
“Out of the three, I think Stephanie would like to finish her year with a good round after, by her standards, a disappointing round,” LeBlond said. “It just didn’t go her way, so to get one more chance at it to get those demons out.”
LeBlond said she was putting well heading into the team championships.
Hashilla Rivai of Thornton Academy is the odds-on favorite as she’s the defending champion. She fired the low round of the day Saturday with an even-par 72. At the SMAA Championships at Natanis last week, she shot an 1-under 71.
“She’s an elite player, if you watch her enough, you can see she plays at a different level,” Thornton Academy coach Jeff Camire said on Saturday. “Her mental approach to the game is at another level. That’s what separates her and someone I don’t worry about in this kind of tournament because she’s very relaxed and sticks to her game plan every time she goes out.”
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