By Chris McCarthy/Editor
The Westbrook Christian baseball and soccer squads aren’t the only teams from the school doing some sweeping of late.
The Warrior boys and girls golf teams won the Class 1A-3A state golf championships on Tuesday (May 10) at Huntsville’s Hampton Cove course.
It was the second straight state title for the boys, who took first place with an overall score of 612, 26 strokes ahead of runner-up Indian Springs.
Low medalist John Hilliard Catanzaro followed his opening round score of a six-under par 66 with a 3-over par 75 on Tuesday to finish at 3-under 141.
Harrison Martin finished in fourth place with a score of 150, while Will Wethington shot even-par 72 on Tuesday, the only par or better round in the 3A competition in the second round. He shot an overall 153 to tie for sixth place individually.
Catanzaro helped the Warriors build an 11-shot lead on Monday with a team score of 303, 15 over par. Martin complemented Catanzaro’s 66 with an even-par 72, followed by Will Wethington with 81, J.P. Pirani with 84 and Jackson Bowman with 92. Pirani and Bowman finished with overall sores of 168 and 177, respectively.
The Lady Warriors shot 263 on Monday and 264 on Tuesday to finish at 527, 11 strokes better than second-place Winfield. Ellie Porter led Westbrook with an overall 169 score for fourth place individually. She was followed from Westbrook by Hope Cone with 178, Sydney Fairchild with 184 and Gracie Guyton with 188.
“We’re very proud of all our kids,” said Westbrook head coach Misti Fairchild. “The boys had it under control the whole time, and a big help for that was John Hilliard shooting so well on the first day. His teammates stepped up and helped on the second day, but John Hilliard really held it on is own for us over the first 18 holes. He is playing phenomenally right now.
“Since he struggled a little bit in our first tournament of the season in Montgomery, John Hilliard been lighting it up. His dad (Tony) takes him to a lot of tournaments that are on a big scale like this one, and on Monday morning, John Hilliard had zero nerves.”
In contrast to the boys’ overall dominance, the Lady Warriors experienced some tense moments, particularly during Tuesday’s final round.
“I was nervous right up until the very end,” said Fairchild. “We had the last grouping for the girls [on Tuesday], and [Winfield] was definitely beating us all day long. But one of [Winfield’s] players had a really bad hole on No. 16, and that made all the difference for us, because she was only three over [par] going into that hole. If it hadn’t been for that it would have been extremely close, but we were able to pull out the win.
“The truth is that my girls didn’t play like I’ve seen them play this season. They felt a lot of pressure, and I guess part of it was being at state in a tough venue and having a case of nerves. Our younger players definitely learned some lessons, and hopefully next year we’ll be a little bit better equipped mentally.”
The Glencoe boys finished fourth with an overall 660 score. The Yellow Jackets’ Jack Sims shot an even par 72 on Monday and a 74 on Tuesday to finish at 146 and claimed individual runner-up honors behind Catanzaro. Brock McNeely followed Sims with a 161 score, followed by Ethan Womack with 174, Andrew Lang with 179 and Jeremiah Ward with 222.
Fairchild noted that she loses only one senior – Harrison Martin – from both teams for next season.
“We have an extremely good chance for both teams next year, and we have several younger players that will be ready to step up,” she said.
This article was supplemented by ahsaa.com