No complaints: Peters Twp. boys win WPIAL golf title
Peters Township’s Jake Sollon shot a 72 at Thursday’s WPIAL Class AAA Team Golf Championships.
Eleanor Bailey / The Almanac Ben Morgret of Peters Township tees off while Andrew Thomas from Upper St. Clair watches his drive during WPIAL Division I team championship action in boys’ golf.
Cody Dobbin of Burgettstown puts power behind his drive during WPIAL Division II golf championship action. He carded an 82.
Jake Trimbur of South Fayette hits out of a sand trap during WPIAL Division II boys’ team championship action at Cedarbrook Golf Course.
Synclaire Kuhn from Peters Township watches her putt during WPIAL team championship action for girls golf.
BELLE VERNON – None of the golfers on Peters Township High School’s team complained about the chilly conditions, or the whipping wind, or the difficult layout of the 6,420-yard Gold Course at Cedarbrook Golf Course Thursday afternoon.
No one complained because the man keeping an eye on them from the cart along the path had gone through so much recently and didn’t complain.
“I don’t want this to be about me,” said Dave Kuhn.
But it was about him, whether he likes it or not.
Kuhn travelled the course with a bandage on his right hand, the result of a band saw accident at home that sliced off two fingers and forced a medical helicopter flight to Allegheny General Hospital to have them reattached. The accident came 10 days after Kuhn’s father died and just a couple months after an auto accident totaled his car.
“We’re like a family,” said Ben Morgret, the only senior on the Indians’ team. “It showed us there was more to life than golf, that there are worse things than hitting a bad golf shot.”
Peters Township hit many more good shots than bad in winning the WPIAL Class AAA Golf Team Championship for the fourth time under Kuhn and fifth time in school history.
The Indians shot 380, easily outdistancing Pine Richland, which posted a 398. Sewickley Academy shot 402 to win the Class AA boys title, topping second-place Burgettstown by 20 strokes. South Fayette finished fifth. Central Valley won the Class AAA girls title with a 316 – it’s fifth straight team title – and Peters Township was second with 336. Sewickley Academy also won the Class AA girls title.
The PT boys and girls teams advanced to the PIAA Team Tournament Wednesday, Oct. 22 at Heritage Hills Country Club in York.
The Peters Township boys total yesterday was one shot better than Upper St. Clair had in winning last year’s Class AAA title and the best on the Cedarbrook course.
“They have done what we asked all year,” said Kuhn of an Indians’ team that has three sophomores and a junior in the starting lineup. “I really like this group. They stayed focused and today was the first day we talked about winning the championship. I told them that this was about them. I told them I stayed focus and kept my composure in a life-and-death situation, so if they stayed focus and kept their composure, good things will happen to them.”
Junior Jake Sollon shared medalist honors with Matt Delroso of Pittsburgh Central Catholic after each shot even-par 72. Solon had three birdies, two coming on back-to-back holes, the 353-yard par-4 ninth and the 554-yard, par-5 10th. The latter birdie came compliments of a 30-foot chip that went into the cup. He chipped within three feet of the hole on No. 9 and sank the putt and sank a 10-footer on No. 6 for the other birdie.
“This a pretty special feeling,” said Sollon, who won medalist honors early this season by shooting 70 in the Chairman’s Cup at Cedarbrook. “This team sticks together, and we played together as a team.”
Junior Alec Stopperich finished with a 2-over 74, Morgret a 76 and sophomore Tanner Johnson a 78.
In Class AA, Anthony Muscato of Sewickley Academy was medalist with a 2-over 74. No player from either Burgettstown or South Fayette broke 80. Senior Hunter Lecker led the Blue Devils with an 80, despite a double-bogey on 11, a triple on 12 and a bogey on 13. He sank a 40-foot putt on the par-4 eighth for a birdie.
“I played pretty well on a difficult course,” said Lecker. “I felt I needed to shoot 75 or lower.”
Junior Cody Dobbin carded an 82, sophomore Austin Lis an 84 and freshman Clark Miller an 86.
Wes Keeling and Ryan McGowan led South Fayette with a pair of 81s. Alex Lacinsky turned in an 85 and Alex Orlendini an 89.
“The wind was eating every one of my shots,” said Keeling. “I had to hit more knock down shots. I would club up, swing three-quarters and try to keep it out of the air.”
This was Keeling’s fourth time playing the course, so familiarity wasn’t a problem. He birdied both par-5s on the front – Nos. 4 and 6 – thanks to good wedge shots.
“This course sets up nice for me, driver and wedge,” he said. “But the wind was taking my wedge shots everywhere.”
Mia Kness led the Peters Township girls team to a second-place finish in Class AAA with a 6-over 78. Sophomore Brooke Hilden carded an 82, junior Synclair Kuhn an 87 and sophomore Alyssa Parham an 89.