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The PIAA individual golf championships got underway on Monday at Penn State University, and a strong showing from the Wyoming Valley Conference has several local golfers firmly in the hunt at the halfway point.
Golfers will return to the course on Tuesday for the second and final round of the championships.
In the Class 2A boys tournament, there were only six rounds shot under par on the tournament’s first day — and the WVC claimed two of them.
Defending state champion Nick Werner fired a two-under-par 70 to lead all District 2 golfers in the field.
Werner, a senior at Wyoming Seminary, ended up in solo possession of fourth place at the end of the day, just two strokes behind the leaders.
A shot behind Werner was Lake-Lehman’s Charlie Weidner, tied for fifth place with a one-under 71.
District 2 sent six golfers to the Class 2A boys state tournament, with four Scranton Prep golfers joining Werner and Weidner at State College.
Ben Boyanoski led the pack of Cavaliers, shooting a 74 to finish the day tied for 13th place. Ben Walsh shot a 76, Brendan Bell shot a 77 and Jack Pavuk rounded out the Prep golfers with an 85.
It was a two-day tie at the top of the leaderboard after the opening round between Schuylkill Haven sophomore Alan Evans and Ethan Dai of Quaker Valley, who shot matching 68s to finish four strokes under par.
Class 2A Girls
Both Tunkhannock’s Hallie Brown and Holy Redeemer’s Arden Brunn finished their first rounds inside the top 10 on Monday.
Brown, who narrrowly missed out on a district title after falling in a playoff to Wyoming Seminary’s Anna Zapletalova, was tied for third place after shooting a three-over-par 75 in the first round. She’s just two shots off the lead.
Brunn sits a few shots back after firing off a 78, good for a three-way tie in seventh place.
Zapletalova, the only WVC golfer to medal in last year’s Class 2A girls championships, shot a first-round 84 to put herself in a tie for 19th place.
The 18-hole leader, Madison Koshko from St. Joseph’s, posted a 73 to take the lead after the opening day.
Class 3A
It was a thinner crowd for the WVC in the Class 3A championships, with just one golfer in the girls tournament and none in the boys tournament.
Crestwood’s Sienna Smith, the lone Class 3A golfer to reach states from the Wyoming Valley, was disqualified from the competition on Monday during her first round; the circumstances surrounding Smith’s DQ were unclear based on live scoring for the tournament.
North Pocono’s Lyla Jones shot an 81 to finish tied for 25th place.
The 18-hole leader, Mya Morgan, shot a four-under-par 68 to take the lead.
On the boys’ side in Class 3A, Cade Kelleher led a foursome of Abington Heights golfers with an even-par 72, placing him in a tie for 24th place and six shots out of the lead.
Robert Munley shot a 76, Phillip Matthews carded a 78 and Robert Bingham posted an 82 to round out the first-round scores for Abington Heights.
The lone other District 2 golfer to reach states in Class 3A, North Pocono’s Jason Walsh, shot a five-over-par 77.