Sectional champs

Falcons bounce back from County Tournament setback to win sectional; Lady Wildcats, Alexandria go 1-2; Oxford qualifies 2 boys

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

SILVER LAKES — The Donoho golf team knew it didn’t have to play its best — or even win — to advance to the next round of the state tournament, but it did.

And after its showing in the sectionals last year and its finish in the Calhoun County Tournament last week that was a good thing.

The Falcons were going to advance to the Class 1A-2A North substate regardless of how they played in the sectionals at Silver Lakes Tuesday. But they went out and put three scores in the 70s and shot their best round since Madison Williams took over as coach – a 309 – to come out No. 1.

They were in a similar situation at the sectionals last year and shot in the 340s. Their play also wiped out any bad taste still lingering from finishing second in what was expected to be a hotly contested battle with White Plains for the Calhoun County title.

Ninth-grader Jacob Lecroy led the way for Donoho, winning medalist honors with a 2-under-par 70.

Ross Svenson finished second overall in the 21-player field at 76. The Falcons also counted Jack Svenson’s 79 and Robert Clausen’s 84. They also qualified two individuals, Holden Abernathy (93) and Buddy Ray (98).

“Everybody played good; everybody stepped up when they needed to,” Williams said. “I think after County we finished short and today was a good comeback.

“They were disappointed about not winning the County. I’m glad they came back and didn’t get defeated.”

The Falcons established their presence early. Their four counters played the Backbreaker 9 in 3-over-par as a team.

“I saw Jacob on 9 and he makes a birdie to go 4-under. I see Jack and he’s even. I thought we were about to have a little career day going or something,” Ross Svenson said. “I think we all just want to compete against each other. I think we all feel like 1 through 5 we can beat each other so it’s always a competition within itself.”

Lecroy was 4-under on the Backbreaker and had chances to go even lower. He lipped out another birdie putt and missed a three-footer for eagle. He had six birdies in the round.

“I played pretty good on that side; didn’t make any mistakes,” he said. “It was about as good as I could play on that side. I couldn’t ask for much more except for those putts. I made a lot of mistakes on the Mind’.”

Next up for the Falcons is the substate at Decatur Country Club. The top two teams advance to the state tournament at Hampton Cove.

“I think we’re going to make it to State,” Lecroy said. “We’ve just got to go out there and perform as a team.”

Dyars lead Lady Wildcats to elusive section crown

CULLMAN — Layne Dyar and the White Plains girls won their 4A-5A sectional at Chesley Oaks.

The Lady Wildcats posted a team score 218, their lowest round in coach Marcus Harrell’s four-year tenure as their head coach. Two-time county champion Layne Dyar won medalist with an even-par 71. Her eighth-grade sister Hannah shot 72 and Morgan Prickett shot 75.

Hanna played the back nine in 1-under-par (35). She missed by an inch a birdie putt on 18 that could have thrown her into a playoff with her sister. The 20-foot putt stopped a half-roll from going in the hole.

“As soon as she hit the green in regulation we started talking about how cool it would be for sisters playing it off,” Harrell said.

Harrell called her round “absolutely amazing.” She got up and down for par nine times, made two birdies and had 27 putts.

“Outside of one hole … she played about perfect,” Harrell said. “Anytime somebody on your team shoots 72 it’s pretty good; when an eighth-grader does it, it’s pretty special.

“We just looked back at previous tournaments to find where our weaknesses were and for Hanna it was in her short game, so that’s all we’ve done all week. She’s worked over 20 hours on her short game alone. It definitely paid off.”

The Lady Wildcats are trying to capture a season Grand Slam that will culminate in a state championship. They already won the County Championship and the sectionals, the two legs that eluded them in last year’s state championship-winning season.

“Every year we list our big goals and the four tournaments we list are always the County, section, substate and state,” Harrell said. “They’re obviously our biggest events every year.

“The County Championship and the section championship was a big deal to Layne and Morgan. This is they’re last go-round and that’s two we hadn’t won as a team. It was really big to our seniors and our team in general.”

Alexandria posted 258 as a team and finished second. Abby Stevens had the Lady Cubs’ low round, a 73. Taylor Snow shot 82.

Both teams advance to the substate next week at Anniston Country Club. White Plains is the host.

Oxford’s Turley, Allen qualify as individuals

OXFORD — Jeremy Allen parred the 18th hole to win a sudden-death playoff for the final individual qualifying spot in the Class 6A boys sectional at Cider Ridge.

He joins teammate Will Turley among the individual qualifiers. The Yellow Jackets missed qualifying their team by seven shots.

Turley shot 80. Allen shot 83 and faced Dylan Sampsell in a playoff. Allen two-putted from the front fringe for his par. Sampsell hit the middle of the par-5 green in regulation — after his first two shots both found trees and kicked back into play — but three putted from 25 feet.

CLASS 1A-2A BOYS SECTION 3
At Silver Lakes

Team scores
Donoho 309
Fyffe 354
Section 409

Individual scores
Jacob Lecroy, Donoho 70
Ross Svenson, Donoho 76
Chad Gray, Fyffe 76
Jack Svenson, Donoho 79
x-Nicholas Sawyer, Cedar Bluff 82
Robert Clauson, Donoho 84
Mason Barber, Fyffe 84
Matt Wilson, Section 86
Harrison Hugheston, Donoho 87
E.B. Carroll, Fyffe 92
x-Holden Abernathy, Donoho 93
x-Trevor McWilliams, Spring Garden 98
x-Buddy Ray, Donoho 98
Colby Smith, Section 101
Garrett Butts, Fyffe 102
Austin Wade, Skyline 105
Colby Shankles, Section 107
Brett Shankles, Section 115
Chipper Shell, Spring Garden 125
x-Individual qualifier

CLASS 6A BOYS SECTIONAL
At Cider Ridge Golf Club

Team scores
(Top 4 advance)
Pell City 315
Benjamin Russell 332
Chilton County 352
Pinson Valley 355
Chelsea 357
Stanhope Elmore 361
Oxford 362
Opelika 370
Wetumpka 408
Clay-Chalkville 416

Medalist: Tucker Wilder, Pell City
Qualifiers: Grayson Hughes, Clay-Chalkville; Will Turley, Oxford; Burt Owen, Stanhope Elmore; Jeremy Allen, Oxford

Individual scores
Tucker Wilder, Pell City 74
Tanner Wilder, Pell City 78
Logan Bowman, Pell City 79
John Dobbs, Pinson Valley 79
Caleb O’Toole, Pinson Valley 80
Will Turley, Oxford 80
Burt Owen, Stanhope Elmr 80
Grayson Hughes, Clay-Ch 80
Harold Coker, Ben Russell 80
Dylan Moncus, Ben Russell 81
Jeremy Allen, Oxford 83
Dylan Sampsell, Chelsea 83
Sawyer Stice, Pell City 84
Sawyer Scott, Ben Russell 84
Atharv Argrade, Stanhope Elmr 84
Nash Cox, Chilton Co 85
Payton Cooper, Chelsea 85
Cole Watley, Chilton Co 86
Richard Trey Shockley, Ben Russell 87
Hunter Hendricks, Clay-Ch 87
Boyd Price, Chilton Co 88
Michael Calhoun, Pinson Valley 88
Trey Baker, Chilton Co 89
Bailey Price, Chilton Co 89
Kylee Reeder, Ben Russell 89
Cole Headley, Chilton Co 90
Trent Burnette, Opelika 90
Luke Ganus, Chelsea 90
Jordan Lovelace, Opelika 91
Austen Blackmon, Opelika 94
Chris Edge, Pell City 94
Bailey Saggus, Opelika 95
Tanner Sheffield, Stanhope Elmr 96
Jacob Vaughn, Oxford 99
Justin Goman, Chelsea 99
Casey Rushton, Chelsea 99
Peyton Glass, Wetumpka 99
Keaton Borrelli, Oxford 100
Jake Munroe, Oxford 100
Cade Turner, Wetumpka 100
Carter Haggard, Stanhope Elmr 101
Taylor McDonald, Valley 102
Clay Simonton, Wetumpka 104
E.J. Flynn, Wetumpka 105
Jackson Blanks, Valley 105
Nicholas Fulcher, Valley 105
Justin Bell, Pinson Valley 108
Turner Shankles, Pinson Valley 110
J.D. Davis, Clay-Ch 114
Jackson Filligins, Oxford 115
Mason Beck, Clay-Ch 135

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