November 1, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Mount golf repeats as State Champion
by TOM UTESCHER

Celebrating back-to-back state golf championships for Mount St. Joseph Academy are (L-R): Nicole Weinrich, Carson Price, Coach Will Reilly, Lauren Haney (Captain), Emily Gimpel and Samm Arena. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

YORK, PA  -  “Heritage Hills - that’s where I want to be!”

Okay, in the song by Wheezer they were actually singing about Beverly Hills, but the Mount St. Joseph Academy golf team was perfectly happy to forego the glamour in order to play a couple rounds at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort in Central Pennsylvania last week.

On this par-72 course located on the eastern outskirts of York, Pa., the MSJ Magic won their second straight PIAA State Championship, once again outdueling two-time runner-up Villa Maria Academy of Erie, Pa.

Mount St. Joe, the District 1 and Eastern Region champion, gained a 21-stroke lead in the first round of play on Monday. The Villa Victors, the top team out of District 10 and the Western Region, almost drew even near the turn during Tuesday’s concluding round, but the Mount recovered on the back nine, and its four players produced a total score of 723 to Villa’s 737.

Freshman Samm Arena led the way for the Magic with a two-day total of 157 (78/79), showing remarkable consistency despite the fact that Monday’s weather conditions were unseasonably warm and calm, while it was cooler on Tuesday with strong winds that inflated the scores of many other players. MSJ sophomore Emily Gimpel recorded an overall score of 166 (78/88), and the Magic’s total was rounded out by juniors Carson Price (90/99 – 189) and Nicole Weinrich (103/108 – 211). Senior Lauren Haney, the Mount captain, was the designated alternate and was on hand to encourage her younger teammates throughout the event.

Villa Maria’s line-up consisted of seniors Jackie Dill (82/81 – 163), Liz Fessler (92/90 – 182), and Abby Sorensen (94/92 – 186) and freshman Jackie Masek (102/104 – 206).

In 2006, the Magic had beaten the Victors by just five strokes. The Mount’s leader last fall was Arena’s older sister, Victoria, a senior who’d won the individual state title as a junior in 2005.

In the opening round of the 2007 State tourney, Arena birdied the par-four 13th hole as she and Gimpel each carded a 78.

“I was nervous because it was a state event and my sister did well,” the freshman said, noting that Victoria had given her a few generic words of advice such as “take it one hole at a time, just do your best.”

When all of the players had returned to the clubhouse, Mount St. Joe held a 21-stroke lead over its cross-state rival, 349-370, while State College High School was well back in third at 399.

“We took advantage of the good weather,” pointed out Will Reilly, the Mount’s second-year coach. “It was good that the girls went out and played hard and got a lead on the first day, otherwise, it wouldn’t have ended the way it did.”

At the conclusion of the tourney, Price remarked, “We just wanted to get ahead the first day, because we knew the conditions were going to be bad today.”

Tuesday’s winds pushed clouds over the course, some of them ominous in appearance, but aside from a slight sprinkle just after noon, conditions were dry. The wind was bad enough, though.

“I tend to hit my drives high,” Gimpel said. “Today there was like a two-club wind, and it took your ball all over the course.”

The players learned to adjust their aim, and as Weinrich noted, “It was more to do with club selection, like having the wind in my face and going with a higher club. You also wanted to keep the ball lower to the ground. Everyone had to deal with the same wind, so I just tried to zone it out.”

Price said that even the short game was affected, as putts were pushed by the wind and often traveled too far past the hole.

Arena, who was adjusting to a new putter, added, “When I’d be addressing the ball, on takeaway the wind would catch my putter and take it off-line, and the wind would push the ball off its spot.”

Coach Reilly observed, “My girls play in a lot of tournaments, and they’re used to the summer. It didn’t seem like the Villa girls were as fazed by the conditions.”

Perhaps they were used to winds blowing in off of Lake Erie, but in any event, the Victors attacked the Mount lead on the front nine of the second day’s round. On the first hole the girls played (actually number 10 on the course), the Victors cut the MSJ lead from 21 strokes to 13.

After all of the players on both squads had completed the seventh hole, the running team totals for the tournament showed the Mount leading by a single stroke, 504-505. On the eighth hole (the par-four 16th), Villa’s players faltered, as its quartet took a combined total of 26 strokes to get the ball down, while the Mount needed 19.

Just after the players made the turn onto the course’s front nine, the Victors pulled back within six (594-600) on the 11th hole in the sequence (number two on the course). Once more, the Erie entourage fell back as the four Magic players finished the par-four third hole (their 12th) in 18 swings to gain half-a-dozen strokes. Down the stretch the Mount led by 15 strokes on two occasions, and wound up winning by 14. State College remained a distant third with a team score of 788.

Arena and Gimpel played together in the first foursome, while Price, who’d been the last Mountie to tee off in the 2006 championships, was in the second group.

“It’s better not to be in the back, because then all the pressure’s on you,” she said from experience.

On the back nine, all four Magic players produced better scores than they had on the trip out. Weinrich, playing in the last foursome, shaved six strokes off on the return trip.

The team’s alternate a year ago, she said, “I was really excited to get out and play this year. I had some idea of where we were [in the team scoring] from hearing from my grandparents. I just had to concentrate on making all my shots and staying close to my girl.”

At the awards ceremony top individual honors among the girls went to Waynesburg Central’s Rachel Rohanna, a junior from Western PA who shot a five-under 139, an outstanding showing given the conditions on the second day. For the second year in a row, Mount St. Joe’s team depth earned the Magic the state team championship.

Gimpel enthused, “It was really exciting and we’re happy for Lauren [Haney]. She’s a great captain.”

Reilly stated, “The senior who didn’t play was the key to everything. She organized them, she led the chant before they went out, and she didn’t complain about not playing. She was out there on the course following the girls, encouraging them, letting them know she was there. Having that senior leadership definitely made a difference.

“The players really have an excellent support system all the way around,” the coach went on. “We had parents who came up with the girls on Saturday so that they could practice here over the weekend. A lot of our parents really know the game, and they can help the girls even when I’m not around. So this really was a total team effort.”