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It’s already time for the high school golf season to wrap up.
The regular season comes to a close at the end of the week with the postseason beginning on Monday at the Wyoming Valley Conference Pre-district Tournament at Fox Hill Country Club. That’s the first individual event of the postseason with spots for each District 2 Tournament up for grabs.
Before that though, there are a handful of matches on the schedule that need finish up to decide the division winners and the teams for next week’s WVC Team Championships, at Fox Hill on Sept. 29.
The Class 2A divisions are wrapped up with Wyoming Seminary dethroning eight-time division champion Holy Redeemer and is currently unbeaten with a 10-0 record securing the Division 3 title. Lake-Lehman has won Division 4 with just one loss this season. The Blue Knights and the Black Knights will square off next week for the conference’s 2A champion.
In 3A, well there’s still a lot to settle. Coughlin, the frontrunner in all of 3A to start the season, entered Tuesday as the leader of Division 1. But the Crusaders (7-2) have three tough matches remaining in the next three days as they try to hold off charging Dallas (6-4) and Tunkhannock (6-5).
Coughlin is slated to take on Dallas Friday at Wilkes-Barre Golf Club in what will decide the division. Before that showdown on Friday, the Mountaineers face winless Pittston Area today, while Coughlin takes on Wyoming Area today and Wyoming Valley West on Thursday.
Should the Crusaders and Mountaineers end on Friday with the same record, both teams will advance to the team tournament, which has happened in the past.
The winner of Division 1 will square off with the Division 2 champ in next week’s team event. Crestwood (9-1), which claimed the team championship of the Preseason Tryba Tournament getting by Coughlin by one stroke, fell to the Crusaders in a match earlier this month. The Comets secured their berth in the team tournament on Tuesday by defeating second-place Wyoming Valley West (6-3).
Individual Qualifiers
At next week’s Pre-District boys event, the top 16 finishers in Class 2A will advance to the District 2 event to be held on Monday, Oct. 12 at Elmhurst Country Club. In 3A, the top 18 boys will qualify for districts. Both qualifying numbers hinge on the players shooting a score of 93 or better.
On the girls side, a female needs to card a 100 or better to qualify for districts, which will be held the same day and location. The WVC girls qualifier is also on Monday at Fox Hill.
At districts, the top six boys in each classification will advance to the East Regional on Oct. 19, while the top three girls in each class will also move on.
Royals’ rebuild
When Holy Redeemer missed out on the division title this season for the first time in eight seasons, it also meant that there will be a new WVC participant in the D2 title match for the first time in six years.
The rebuilding Redeemer squad reached the district final for five straight years, which included two district titles, ended the season with three losses, the most the team has endured in school history. In fact, the Royals program only combined for three losses in the previous eight years of the school’s existence after the four Luzerne County catholic schools merged to become Holy Redeemer for the 2007-08 school year.
Redeemer is still expected to have a strong showing in the individual postseason. Sophomore Kenny Wallace finished sixth at the Preseason Tryba Tournament, finishing second among Class 2A participants. The only 2A golfer to finish ahead of Wallace was Lake-Lehman’s Adam Motovidlak, who was fifth at pre-districts last season and missed out on qualifying for regionals in a playoff.