Garces comes within three shots of Div. I crown; BCHS wins Div. II
| Tuesday, May 19 2009 10:13 PM
Last Updated Tuesday, Jun 02 2009 05:27 PM
BOYS GOLF
Central Section Team Championships
At Belmont Country Club in Fresno, par 72
Division I
CLOVIS WEST (377) -- Weaver 69, Johnson 74, Park 77, Sweeney 77, Waterhouse 80, (Swindle 85).
PORTERVILLE (380) -- Jessup 72, Kennel 73, McGinn 73, Stone 80, Schortman 82, (Proctor 85).
GARCES (380) -- Scott 73, Antongiovanni 75, Harmer 76, Guzman 76, Kirschenmann 80, (Root 98).
STOCKDALE (389) -- Fernandez 72, Keene 75, Marina 77, King 79, Patel 86, (Denari 87).
CENTENNIAL (396) -- Jo. Choi 77, Shah 78, Henneberry 80, Je. Choi 80, Bautista 81, (Lemay 83).
LEMOORE (408) -- Rodrigues 75, Cole Neal 80, Cody Neal 80, Schuh 86, Larson 87, (Bretten 91).
FRESNO-SAN JOAQUIN MEMORIAL (411) -- Thomason 78, Senatone 80, Novak 81, Duque 85, Christensen 87, (Van Gundy 89).
Division II
BAKERSFIELD CHRISTIAN (430) -- Underhill 80, Spalinger 84, Moore 88, Harmon 88, T. Stewart 90, (G. Stewart 94).
FRESNO CHRISTIAN (434) -- Zaentz 82, Lee 82, Roseth 84, Jacobson 90, Kinghorn 96, (De Groot 111).
VISALIA-CENTRAL VALLEY CHRISTIAN (450) -- Walters 85, Newkirk 86, A. teVelde 91, J. teVelde 93, Kampen 95, (G. teVelde 97).
Images
Casey Christie / The Californian Two farmworkers seen working in the fields near Fresno, Tuesday afternoon on a hot day in the central valley with hats, long sleeve shirts and scarves.
Casey Christie / The Californian HIGH SCHOOL GOLF IN FRESNO..CENTENNIAL...STOCKDALE
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's Bryce Keene is hoping for a birdie on the 8th green, but settled for a par 3 after missing this shot, Tuesday, in Fresno during the Central Section golf team championships at Belmont Country Club.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's Bryce Keen reacts after missing a birdie putt on the 8th green, Tuesday, as he walks past Centennial's Joseph Choi, one of the players in their foursome at Belmont Country Club.
Casey Christie / The Californian Two farmworkers seen working in the fields near Fresno, Tuesday afternoon on a hot day in the central valley with hats, long sleeve shirts and scarves.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's Pete Fernandez chips out of the sandtrap on one of the holes on the front nine, during Tuesday's Central Section golf team championships at Belmont Country Club in Fresno.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's Pete Fernandez drives off the 5th tee, Tuesday, in Fresno, during the Central Section boys golf championships at Belmont Country Club.
Casey Christie / The Californian Bryce Keene uses an iron off the 8th tee while keeping an eye on his ball down the fairway during Tuesday's Central Section boys golf championships in Fresno at Belmont Country Club. Keene almost birdied the par three, but was happy with par.
Casey Christie / The Californian HIGH SCHOOL GOLF IN FRESNO..CENTENNIAL...STOCKDALE
Casey Christie / The Californian During this shot off the 5th tee Centennial's Manav Shah hit a wire with the golf ball and automatically got a second tee shot, Tuesday, at Belmont Country Club in Fresno during the Central Section boys golf championships.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's Pete Fernandez chips out of the sandtrap on one of the holes on the front nine, during Tuesday's Central Section golf team championships at Belmont Country Club in Fresno.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's Bryce Keene is hoping for a birdie on the 8th green, but settled for a par 3 after missing this shot, Tuesday, in Fresno during the Central Section golf team championships at Belmont Country Club.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's Pete Fernandez drives off the 5th tee, Tuesday, in Fresno, during the Central Section boys golf championships at Belmont Country Club.
Casey Christie / The Californian Centennial's Manav Shah, lines up a putt on the 5th green during Tuesday's Central Section boys golf championships in Fresno at Belmont Country Club.
Casey Christie / The Californian Bryce Keene uses an iron off the 8th tee while keeping an eye on his ball down the fairway during Tuesday's Central Section boys golf championships in Fresno at Belmont Country Club. Keene almost birdied the par three, but was happy with par.
Casey Christie / The Californian Stockdale's Bryce Keen reacts after missing a birdie putt on the 8th green, Tuesday, as he walks past Centennial's Joseph Choi, one of the players in their foursome at Belmont Country Club.
Casey Christie / The Californian HIGH SCHOOL GOLF IN FRESNO..CENTENNIAL...STOCKDALE
Casey Christie / The Californian Centennial's Joseph Choi concentrates on an iron shot during Tuesday's Central Section boys golf championships in Fresno at Belmont Country Club.
Casey Christie / The Californian During this shot off the 5th tee Centennial's Manav Shah hit a wire with the golf ball and automatically got a second tee shot, Tuesday, at Belmont Country Club in Fresno during the Central Section boys golf championships.
Casey Christie / The Californian Two farmworkers seen working in the fields near Fresno, Tuesday afternoon on a hot day in the central valley with hats, long sleeve shirts and scarves.
FRESNO -- With leading Kern County contenders Stockdale and Centennial stumbling, Cinderella almost came in and stole the show at the Central Section team golf championships.
But this is no fairy tale, for there are no tiebreakers in fairy tales.
Garces, third in its own league, came within three strokes of winning the school's first Division I golf title and tied for second place with Porterville -- before losing that tie, and the chance to advance to the Southern California regionals, on a comparison of sixth-man scores.
"What do they say about Cinderella and the pumpkin?" Garces coach Keith Perkins said. "No, this was a good ride. Nobody expected us to be here, and we had nothing to lose."
Garces shot 380 at the par-72 Belmont Country Club course, led by Riley Scott's 73, Kevin Antongiovanni's 75 and a 76 from Rito Guzman. Porterville also shot 380, and the Panthers got an 85 from their sixth man, which beat Garces' 98.
"I was getting a little excited," Perkins said. "To get carded off like that, we're not happy, but they've got nothing to hang their heads about."
Clovis West shot a 377 on its home course to win the title. The Golden Eagles' Mike Weaver shot a tournament-low 69, though the individual section championship is decided next week at Seven Oaks.
Bakersfield Christian shot 430 to win the Division II championship, edging Fresno Christian by four strokes. Chris Underhill shot 80 for the Eagles, who won because they had just one scoring player shoot in the 90s.
"The whole year, it's not that we've been dominant at the top," BCHS coach Daren Pitcher said. "We've just been balanced one through six. And that's kind of been our pattern, and that's what held up."
It's the second section title in four years for BCHS.
"It's huge," Pitcher said. "I inherited a good program from Tom Underhill ... so I was really fortunate in that regard. The interesting thing is we have just three returners from last year. So over the course of the year, I'm just really proud of how they found ways to contribute."
As for the Division I race, Stockdale and Centennial, who shot 366 and 374 at last week's South Area tournament, came in hoping to take the section title on Clovis West's home turf. But neither could get the consistent scoring needed to win.
Stockdale's Pete Fernandez shot even-par 72, tied for second-best by an individual, after making three back-nine birdies.
"I only hit two greens on the front nine," Fernandez said. "(The course) wasn't really that hard. It's really easy if you hit the shots you need to hit. If you don't, well, you'll be blinded by trees and stuff like that."
Bryce Keene also shot 75 for the Mustangs, and Alex Marina a 77. But Stockdale couldn't get another score below 79 and finished fourth in 389.
"We didn't get the job done," Stockdale coach Jim Keene said. "When we have our five and six guys go 10 strokes over their average, it kills you. One, two and three are going to be pretty square. It comes down to four, five and six."
Centennial was led by Joseph Choi's 77 and Manav Shah's 78. Both scores were above their averages, and the Golden Hawks were fifth in 396.
That left Garces to sneak in and steal the spotlight -- almost. The Rams only snuck into the section tourney at all because of a new rule that a third team from each area could qualify for the section if it shot 380 or better. The Rams shot exactly 380 last week.
They did it again this week.
"I could sense it a few weeks ago," Perkins said. "You could just see that everything was starting to click. I just told them to go out and play loose today. They had nothing to lose."
Except, of course, that heartbreaker of a tiebreaker.
