Headline: Bay State Golfers Shine at 2016 MIAA State Championship Tournament
For Immediate Release: November 2, 2016
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Boston, MA — Monday’s Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association Division I Championship at the William J. Devine Golf Course at Franklin Park had a familiar feel to an MGA event that was held earlier this year.
While it was not the 98th playing of the Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship that was held over three days at Kernwood Country Club, many of the players who competed in the Bay State’s final high school competitive event of the season on Monday had previously competed in the state’s oldest junior tournament.
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MIAA Championship Quick Links
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And much like the hot days of summer, Monday’s 18-round championship featured some of the state’s top young players, whose success on the final day of October mirrored the performances that were on display earlier this season
At the end of the day, it was Nathan Ingram of Pembroke Country Club who was crowned the MIAA Division I Individual Champion after shooting a 1-over par 71 on Monday then winning out in a playoff against three familiar foes who had matching scorecards after the first 18.
Ingram, who is the first Boston College High School student to ever win the MIAA individual champion title, beat out Brendan Cronin (Pleasant Valley CC), Noah Peterson (CC of Wilbraham) and Chris Francoeur (Amesbury G&CC) in the playoff. Cronin, Peterson and Francoeur placed T4, T6 and 8th, respectively, at the Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship held August 1-3.
Ingram had placed T51 overall at the Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship.
“When you look at the names BC High has produced over the years, to say he is the first BC High player [to win an individual state title] puts him in really special company at a place like this,” said BC High coach Chris Hayes. “The fact that he is only a sophomore and the three guys he was against [in the playoff] were all very experienced seniors solidifies that. This win validates that he belongs at that level [of competition].”
Ingram’s victory follows a 2015 campaign in which he finished third at the MIAA Division I State Championship as only a freshman. This year, BC High as a team finished third overall on Monday, six strokes behind the only two teams that the Eagles had lost to in the regular season.
In the team competition on Monday, Westwood’s Xaverian Brothers High School won the MIAA State Championship after beating out St. John’s Prep (Danvers) by two strokes.
The scoring format for the state championship combines the four lowest scores for each team, but after tying St. John’s Prep at 298 apiece, the tiebreaker was decided by the fifth lowest score from each team. XB’s Michael Connors’ 79 score was two strokes lower than that of St. John’s Prep’s Cole English, who registered an 11-over 81. Connors score clinched the state title for Xaverian Brothers.
Members of the Xaverian Brothers team also included Jack Boulger (Walpole CC) and Andrew McInerney (Glen Ellen CC), Davis Kelliher (Walpole CC) and David Carey (Walpole CC). Boulger finished runner-up at the Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship while McInerney placed T9 and Kelliher placed T51. Carey also competed in the first two rounds of play at the tournament earlier this summer.
Boulger and McInerney were also teammates on the Bay State squad that took first place at the New England Junior Invitational held at Cochecho Country Club in Dover, NH over the summer. Both were key in the team’s record 35-stroke victory over second place Connecticut at the annual competition.
Competing for second place St. John’s Prep in Monday’s Division I MIAA State Championship included Chris Francoeur (Amesbury G&CC) and Mark Turner (Bass Rocks GC), who finished eighth and 14th in the summer’s Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship.
Turner also competed on Team Massachusetts at the New England Junior Invitational with Boulger and McInerney.
CLICK HERE for Full Division I Results.
In the MIAA Division II Championship held Monday at Black Swan Country Club in Georgetown, it was Catholic Memorial’s Andrew O’Leary who took the individual state title after firing a 1-under par 71. He had a three stroke lead over the field’s runner up in the MIAA State Individual Tournament, Davis Chatfield, of Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro, Mass.
Also matching Chatfield’s 74 mark were William Frodigh (Westwood) and Alex Jamieson (Duxbury).
Earlier this summer, O’Leary, who played out of Glen Ellen CC, finished T9 at the 98th playing of the Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship, which was held at Kernwood Country Club in Salem from August 1-3.
From the individual scoring charts, Jamieson was also a former competitor at the Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship. The Duxbury HS student plays out of Marshfield Country Club and finished T26 in the Bay State’s top-junior tournament.
In addition to their play in the Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship, both O’Leary and Jamieson were part of the Massachusetts squad that won by a record 35 strokes at the 2016 New England Junior Invitational, which was held in mid-August at Cochecho Country Club in Dover, N.H.
O’Leary finished the three-round tournament at 1-under par 209 while Jamieson finished at 3-over 213 against the top-junior players from each of the five other New England state golf associations.
In the MIAA Division II Team Competition, Westwood High School was crowned the State Champion with a combined score of 312. The scores of the team’s four lowest scorers combined for a two-stroke advantage on the North Andover HS team, who had tallied a 314 score amongst their top-four players.
From Westwood, Dan Frodigh registered a 6-over 78 mark to finish at the team’s third best scorer. He had previously finished in 13th at the Massachusetts Junior as a member of Dedham C&PC while North Andover’s top scorer, Samuel Caron, placed T15 at the Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship.
CLICK HERE for Full Division II Results.
While Monday featured the state’s top-two divisions competing at the MIAA Golf Championships, other golfers had to wait until Tuesday for the remaining State Championships, including the Division III MIAA State Championship being held at Shining Rock Golf Club.
And just like the previous day, there was no lack of competition as some of the Bay State’s top junior amateur golfers took their shot at winning both the team and individual titles. Many of the competitors are familiar to the MGA, as they competed in the 98th playing of the MGA Junior Amateur Championship.
In Tuesday’s event, Christian Emmerich of St. Mary’s Lynn and member at Kernwood Country Club fired a 2-over par 74 to finish third in the MIAA’s Individual results. He was the top finisher amongst players who competed at this past’s summer three-day junior tournament, the largest such in the state with a field capacity of 144.
He finished 47th in the summer event (click here to learn more about this talented family).
Emmerich’s top-three finish helped guide the Spartans to a second place finish behind only Weston High School, who captured their fourth straight MIAA title. Weston and coach Mary O’Brien were led by junior Nick Cummings, who won the individual title in 2015, after the team’s four lowest combined scores totaled 320, seven strokes ahead of St. Mary’s 327. Cummings is a two-time Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship boys division winner as he won that title in 2012 and 2013. Cummings was featured on the USGA web site in 2015 after qualifying for the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship (click here to read that article).
Competing as an individual, Austin Prep junior Nick Hampoian (North Reading) - was the MIAA Div. III Individual State Champion after shooting a field best 1-under par 71. One year ago, Hampoian captured the pre-junior division title at the 2015 Massachusetts Junior Amateur Championship.
Also helping St. Mary’s Lynn to their runner up finish were Christian Emmerich’s brothers, Maximillian (84) and Aiden (86), whose scores both factored into the team’s finish.
Other top-10 finishers from Tuesday’s MIAA Championship who had competed in the Mass Junior included Nico Ciolino (77), Kyle Puchol (77) and Mike McKelvey (78).
McKelvey placed T9 at Kernwood in August while Ciolino finished 54th overall and the 10th best amongst all Pre-Junior players (ages 14-15) in the same event. Puchol and his father Paul, who hold their handicaps out of Old Barnstable Country Club, were also crowned the MGA Father & Son Junior Division Champions earlier this year.
CLICK HERE for Full Division III Results.
