A pair of teams from the FCIAC – the New Canaan girls golf team and the Greenwich boys golf team – each won state championships at their respective state tournaments.
Jackson Fretty fired a 3-under-par 68 to win medalist honors by two strokes and teammate Benjamin Ropiak tied for third place with a 71 to lead Greenwich to the team title at the 2018 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Division I Boys Golf Tournament on June 4 at Stanley Golf Club in New Britain.
New Canaan defended its 2018 CIAC Girls Golf Tournament team title in the closest and most exciting way possible on June 5 at the par-72 Tashua Knolls Golf Course in Trumbull.
The Rams and fellow FCIAC member Fairfield Warde finished in a tie with matching team aggregate scores of 327 after the first 18 regulation holes before New Canaan won the three-hole playoff by a mere stroke, compiling a team playoff score of 54 while Warde carded a 55.
The boys Division I tournament also had FCIAC teams finish 1-2.
Chris Fosdick of Xavier was the runner-up golfer with a 70 while Alexander Gu (71) of Darien tied Ropiak for third place to lead Darien’s Blue Wave to second place, just four strokes behind Greenwich’s champion Cardinals, who placed second last year to Xavier.
This year Greenwich won with a team score of 293. Darien had a 297, one stroke lower than third-place Conard. Simsbury placed fourth with a 299 and was followed by Fairfield Prep (309) and defending champion Xavier (312). Staples was the third FCIAC team among the top seven with its score of 315.
Also for Greenwich, William Nail tied for 14th place with a 75 and the fourth Cardinal who factored in the team scoring was Tyler Sudell with a 79.
Calvin Smith had Darien’s second best score as he placed ninth with a 73. Will Wilson, his teammate, was tied for 10th with his 74 and the fourth and final scoring Blue Wave player was Blake Swigget with a 79.
Team scores in both the boys and girls state tournaments are compiled by adding the scores of each team’s best four golfers.
When the New Canaan girls’ golf teams prevailed by that 54-55 margin at the conclusion of the three playoff holes, it was New Canaan’s fourth overall state championship and New Canaan is now tied with Berlin for the most state championships since CIAC state tournaments for the girls began in 2003 and the Rams won that first one.
Similar to the team scoring format in regulation, each team had five players play in the playoff round (on holes 10, 11 and 12) and each team’s top four scores were the aggregate playoff scores.
“I couldn’t ask for anything more, regardless of how it turned out,” New Canaan coach Priscilla Schulz said to the Stamford Advocate. “There was a lot of pressure on both teams in the playoff, but I think everyone handled it so well. I am ecstatic for the girls and for the seniors.”
New Canaan and Warde were comfortably ahead of the rest of the field with their regulation aggregate scores of 327 as Wethersfield placed third with a 347. Glastonbury finished fourth with a 359, Greenwich (369) completed the top five and Fairfield Ludlowe (370) placed sixth as the fourth FCIAC team among the top six.
Sarah Houle of Newtown was medalist with a 70.
Meghan Mitchell led New Canaan’s Rams to their title as she shot a 75 to tie Greenwich’s Sydney Nethercott for the runner-up spot. Also for the Rams, Julia Bazata tied for ninth with an 81, Morgan Hibbert had an 84 and Lauren Capone an 87.
Mia Gramesty tied for fourth with a 77 to lead Fairfield Warde. The other three scoring Mustangs were Jessica Nuzzaci with a 78, which placed her in a tie for sixth, Bethany Fell with an 83 and Emily Healy with an 89.
It was quite an improvement for Warde in that the Mustangs finished 16 strokes behind New Canaan in the FCIAC Girls Golf Tournament on May 31 at Fairchild Wheeler’s par-73 black course on May 31 when Mitchell fired a 74 to snatch medalist honors and lead the Rams to the conference crown with a team aggregate score of 334. Nuzzaci placed second with a 77 to lead Warde, which had a 350.
Mitchell and Hibbert of New Canaan, Nuzzaci and Fell of Warde, Nethercott of Greenwich, and Ridgefield’s Alyssa Maiolo were the six girls who made the 2018 All-FCIAC Girls Golf First Team.
The five players selected to the 2018 All-FCIAC Boys Golf First Team were Greenwich’s Fretty, Tristan Hochman of Staples, Smith and Gu of Darien, and Fairfield Ludlowe’s Jack Boatwright.
The season’s final event was the CIAC State Open on June 9 at Black Hall Golf Club in Old Lyme – a tournament with only individual scores being officially scored and open to boys and girls.
Fosdick of Xavier, who was runner-up five days earlier to Fretty at the Division I tournament, heated up on this particular day and fired a 4-under-par 67 to win by four strokes over runner-up Tyler Hahn of Avon.
Boatwright was the highest finisher from the FCIAC as he placed third with a 73. Fretty placed fourth with a 76, Smith finished in a five-way tie for fifth with a 77 and Gu tied for 10th with his 78.
