PORTAGE, Maine – The Aroostook League team championship and state tournament berths were up for grabs Thursday at a match which took place at Portage Hills Country Club featuring the region’s Class C schools.
In the end, it was Fort Fairfield claiming its second consecutive County title with a team total of 380, which was nine strokes better than runner-up and tourney host Ashland.
“We played about normal for us,” said Tiger coach Larry Gardner, whose team does not have a senior on the roster. “I think the pairings just worked out to our advantage.”
Ashland had beaten Fort Fairfield by 19 strokes when the two teams met in a regular season match two weeks prior at Portage Hills.
Both schools qualified for the state team championships, to be held at Natanis Golf Course in Vassalboro Oct. 9.
The individuals who will be moving on to the state individual tourney, set for Oct. 16, also at Natanis, are headlined by Thursday’s tourney winner, Kaine Kingsbury of Central Aroostook. He posted a low round of 82 on the day.
Others posting rounds of 90 or better, therefore qualifying for the state competition, were David Dubois of Southern Aroostook (83), Brandon Robinson of Katahdin (90) and Brandon Clark of Fort Fairfield (90).
Clark’s round seemed to be the surprise of the event as he was the Tigers’ No. 5 golfer heading into the competition, but Gardner thought differently.
“All our starters’ averages are about the same, so with Brandon it was about experience and how he’d handle being in a championship tournament,” Gardner said. “His strength is that he’s a good putter and he parred the par-three ninth hole both times with nice putts, and that was big.”
Rounding out the top-10 individually were Billy Weissman of Fort Fairfield (91), Cody Cunningham of Katahdin (93), Logan McLaughlin of Central Aroostook (94), Josh Forsman of Limestone-MSSM (94), Mark Corella of Ashland (94), Jordan Beaulier of Ashland (95) and Chris Wallace of Hodgdon (95).
A team-by-team rundown of Thursday’s tourney, in order of team finish and including team and individual scores, follows. (The top four scores out of the five starters constitute the team score.)
Fort Fairfield, 380: Clark, 90; Weissman, 91; Landon Towle, 98; Noah Bernard, 101; and Tyler Churchill, 103.
Ashland, 389: Corella, 94; Beaulier, 95; Dylan Cyr-Cormier, 98; Royce MacDonald, 102; and Amos Ward, 110.
Katahdin, 417: Robinson, 90; Cunningham, 93; Chris Cloukey, 112; Matt Birmingham, 122; and Cordell Guptill, 195.
Limestone-MSSM, 419: Forsman, 94; Nick Whitehead, 102; Tyler Morgan, 106; Shane Flanagin, 117; and Austin Dow, 118.
Central Aroostook, 421: Kingsbury, 82; McLaughlin, 94; Zach Wilcox, 121; Sam Bennett, 124; and Brenden York 151.
Hodgdon, 467: Chris Wallace, 95; Nick Lunn, 121; Matt Harmon, 123; Greg Griffin, 128; and Jordan Wallace, 149.
Southern Aroostook (no team score): Dubois, 83.
Caribou and Presque Isle joined Fort Kent and Houlton in a four-team match played at Jato Highlands Golf Club in Lincoln last Tuesday.
The Wildcats and Shires both had scores of 159, while Caribou shot a 175 and Fort Kent a 185.
The medalist was Houlton’s Nick Chase with a 37.
Presque Isle’s top scores were recorded by Travis Dyer and Cody Merrill, both with 39s. Adam Flynn shot a 40 and Alex Tuttle a 41.
