Wheeling Central In Second Place And Hungry For More After First Day Of State Golf Tournament
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WHEELING -- After the first day of the WVSSAC Class AA state golf tournament, the Wheeling Central Maroon Knights are sitting high up in the standings, in second-place overall after Wednesday at Speidel Golf Club's Jones Course.
For a team with the history and expectations of Wheeling Central, though, second place was still one spot short of their goal.
"Second place today was okay, but we didn’t come here for second place," Wheeling Central head coach Jim Mortakis said after his team wrapped up the first round of the two-day tournament.
"W just couldn’t putt today. We struggled on the greens, and I think the course was set up really well. I don’t think the pins were in bad places. You know, we struggled as a team to putt. And so, our score sort of shows that. The kids played hard. From tee to green, they’re good. But, our putting is killing us."
Wheeling Central sits in second place heading into Thursday, at +38 as a team. First-place Midland Trail is well ahead of the pack at +24. There is a similarly large gap between Central and third-place Wyoming East at +49.
The Maroon Knights had no weak-link out on the links Wednesday, with three of their four golfers inside the top 10 individually, and the fourth just outside.
Junior Rowen Parker paced his team with an 81, 10 strokes over Par. He birdied hole No. 2 and went for Par on seven other holes.
Sophomores Isaac Tiu and Zack Zende posted identical totals of 85, while fellow sophomore Luke Freeland carded an 88.
"All the boys were in the 80's, and right now I think Rowen was tied for fourth place. Isaac and Zack are tied for eighth, which is pretty good. Unfortunately Luke had a little bit of a letdown on the last few holes and he dropped back, but he’s still in the 80's and our goal was to be right around 80. Rowen got there, unfortunately, the rest of the team didn’t get there."
Freeland is in 14th place after Wednesday.
The first 18 holes of the state tournament were played through intermittent rain, though Mortakis didn't think the weather affected play too greatly.
"Sure, the rain can bother you," Mortakis began. "I think we were very fortunate because we had a 15-minute sprinkle, you know, and then another 10-minute sprinkle. It wasn’t like it was downpouring or anything like that.
"We’ve played in a lot worse conditions than that this year. When it does rain hard, you have to worry about how your grips are, and you have to make sure you keep your clubs dry and keep yourself dry too. It can slow down the greens. But, I don’t think the conditions today were extremely bad. I think we were very fortunate to be able to play most of the day dry."
Weir senior Guy Meneely qualified for the state tournament as an individual after a strong performance in the Class AA Region 1 tournament, and the Red Rider acquitted himself well Wednesday, finishing inside the top ten, tied for sixth with an 82. Meneely Par'd seven of the nine holes on the front-nine to highlight his day.
In the Class A tournament, happening concurrently at the Jones Course, Madonna's Evan Kaczmarek likewise qualified as an individual at last week's Regional, and finished Wednesday at +24, carding a 95.
Wirt County leads the Class A tournament at +36, followed by St. Marys and Charleston Catholic.