To view photos of Monday’s SOL meet, visit the Photo Gallery by clicking on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
By Ben Reese
FRANCONIA TOWNSHIP: Zach Herr has been there before. The Council Rock North junior finished second at the Suburban One League men's golf championship last year.
And added a District One title and was part of the Indians' PIAA championship team.
So maybe it wasn't much of a surprise that Herr followed in the footsteps of former teammate Brandon Dalinka to win the SOL title with a even-par 72 at the 6,493-yard Indian Valley Country Club course Monday.
Over the wet track, Herr, at one point reached 3-under, fell back to even, got it to 1-under before finishing at the 72 total. He was the only player close to par.
"It was kind of tough on the first few holes," Herr said when asked about the damp conditions, "but I still stayed aggressive and kept on my game plan and hit for the center of the green. There were some holes where I would get to the green and half my ball was under the surface of the green."
With the 2010 district crown already in his pocket, it might have been normal for Herr to take it easy at the SOL tourney, aiming instead to repeat at districts and advance beyond. But he constantly fired at the pin on the wet greens.
"It's all about advancing," he said. "My goal is to hopefully go out and win (districts) again.
"I've got a practice round Saturday (at Turtle Creek, the district championship course). I can set the course up theway I want to play it."
Winning the District One title again is something that Herr would like. But there are other things on his horizon.
"Winning the state championship," Herr said with a smile. "I've yet to do it throughout my junior career and it's definitely something I want to put in my trophy case, something I want to do before I leave for college.
"I've got districts and regionals coming up. I'm really pumped for them (too)."
Herr was trailed in the scoring at Indian Valley by Neshaminy's Mike Lam (74), Jalen Griffin of Wissahickon (76), Stewart Rickenbach of Central Bucks East (77) and T.J. Summers (CB West), Andrew Carber (Upper Dublin) and Tyler Solkolis (CB West), all at 78. They were the only ones to break 80.
"It was really wet out there," Rickenbach said "If you didn't hit it in the fairway, the rough was really thick. If you didn't hit many fairways, you were in trouble."
It turned out that way for many of the players. The cutoff for advancing the District One play was 86, two shots less than last year.
Council Rock North and Central Bucks East both advanced five players to districts. Neshaminy, Wissahickon, Souderton, North Penn, Plymouth Whitemarsh, Pennsbury and Central Bucks South all got three golfers into district play. CB West and Upper Dublin had two while Hatboro-Horsham, Abington, Upper Merion and Bensalem each got one.
Needless to say, Herr took the title in the National Conference, beating Neshaminy's Lam. In the other conferences, Griffin took the American, trailed by Upper Dublin's Carber, and Rickenbach won the Continental, followed by Summers and Solkolis.
The ten medal winners in the American Conference were Griffin, Carber, Ryan Estock of Upper Merion, Wissahickon's Jesse Hunsicker, Carter Field of Plymouth Whitemarsh, Rishab Kumar of Wissahickon, PW's Evan Beaty and Dave Pontari and Jake Kieserman and Jon Bebey of Upper Dulbin.
The Continental top ten were Rickenbach, Summers, Solkolis, Hatboro-Horsham's Tom Fisher, Peter Clarke and Andrew Diesel of Souderton, North Penn's Kush Jituri, Anthony Jagelka and Brandon Walker of CB East and North Penn's Alex Acciani.
In the National Conference the 10 medal winners were Herr, Lam, Nick Coyle of Abington, Council Rock North's Todd Smith, Neshaminy's Tom Anella, John Rose of Bensalem, Vinay Ramesh and Ryan Foll of Pennsbury, Dom Foti of Neshaminy and Pennsbury's Dylan del Vecchio.
The District One Tournament will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 11, and Wednesday, Oct 12, at Turtle Creek in Limerick. The top 30 players and ties will advance from the first round into the second.
The regional tournament will be held the following Monday, Oct. 17, at Golden Oaks Golf Club in Fleetwood. District One will get 16 spots in the regional tourney.
- Log in to post comments
