Sep 30, 2021 3 min read

SEWICKLEY – One poor swing was all it took to turn Griffin Hansberry’s day upside down.

In need of par on the par-4, 379-yard No. 18, Hansberry sent his second shot into sand guarding the green.

The freshman from Chartiers-Houston then bladed the ball, sending a screamer past the green and onto the adjoining tee. He chunked his next shot, then sent a pitch flying past the flag. When it was over, Hansberry had a triple-bogey 7 and was eliminated.

“I had a lot of spin on it,” said Hansberry. “You can’t let that get into your head. It’s pretty hard.”

Carmichaels Liam Lohr wasn’t going to let the 18th take a bite out of him. The sophomore from Carmichaels needed a par to leave no doubt and did so Thursday in the WPIAL Class AA Golf Championships at Allegheny Country Club.

The top 18 finishers qualified for the state tournament, which will be held Oct. 18 and 19 at Heritage Hills Resort in York.

Brian McDonnell, a senior from Eden Christian Acdemy, won the event by shooting a 37 on the back 9 of this par-70, 5,548-yard course.

McDonnell shot a five-over 75 after registering a 3-over 38 on the front nine. He defeated Jackson Bould, a junior from Quaker Valley, by one shot.

Logan Monzak, a junior from Elizabeth Forward, and Nixon Erdley, a sophomore from Frazier, tied for third.

“The key hole was No. 11. I birdied it,” said Lohr. “The middle of the first round got pretty good but the back end, I went down a little.”

Lohr, who finished 28th in this event as a freshman last year, finished tied for 10th after shooting 42-38-80.

“From the scores I’ve been seeing this year, they are better than last year but I feel like I’ve been playing way worse than last year,” said Lohr. “I was nervous coming in today, wondering if I could do anything right.”

Evan Davis, a senior at Waynesburg, hung around at the top of the leaderboard through most of the first round. Davis was 1-under par and tied for the lead after six holes. He double-bogeyed the par-3 eighth and took an eight on the par-four 12th.

Davis finished the day with an 87, 17-over par, tied for 24th.

Chase Malanoski of Beth-Center eagled the par-4 7th hole when his approach landed on the green, just past the flag, hopped backward and landed in the hole.

It was the only eagle of the day on 301-yard hole. Malanoski shot 44-54-98 and tied for 61st place.

Hudson Pincavitch, a senior from Waynesburg, had two sevens and an eight on his way to a 90. Teammate Matt Ankrom shot 97 and Mason Switalski finished with a 98.

Jacob Ross, a junior from McGuffey, had six sixes and an eight on the way to a 92 and teammate Kaleb Hancher had three sevens and a nine while shooting 96.

Carmichaels Mason Lapana shot 93, Rolin Burghy shot 94 and Nick Ricco and Dustin Hastings 96 each.

Braden Benke of Waynesburg ended up with a 96 and Caleb Passieu of Chartiers-Houston had 97.