GREENFIELD TWP. – Gavin June could have stood around the scoreboard area worrying about his status as a potential Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Tournament qualifier out of the District 2 Individual Golf Championships.
Instead, Lackawanna Trail’s June put his down time to good use.
June worked on some issues with his driver, then ripped a drive off the first tee, paving the way to a playoff victory that gained him a return trip to the PIAA Championships.
“I was kind of expecting a playoff the entire time,” June said after a tie for fifth in the 37-player Class 2A field left him in a three-way playoff for the final two state berths. “I knew good players still had to come in after I was done, so I went to the range and hit some drives. That’s what I had struggled with all day.”
Eli Ropietski from Lake-Lehman, Lackawanna League qualifying medalist Eddie Kaufman from Mid Valley and June headed back to the first tee after shooting 6-over-par, 78s.
There, on the 477-yard, par-5, June put his practice time to good use.
“I hit a pretty solid drive down the left side and left myself about 180, 170 yards in,” June said.
From there, a misjudgment of the wind that had made things difficult all day left June’s 9-iron about 10 yards short of the green, but he was still in good position. Kaufman had gone over the green and June got to watch and learn from Ropietski’s chip.
June put his chip in position to leave himself a five-footer with only a slight break, a putt he made for birdie to secure the first of the two remaining berths. After posting pars on 1 and 2, the others returned to 1 where Ropietski’s birdie knocked out Kaufman.
Lackawanna Trail had three players in the tournament.
Lorenzo Domiano tied for 17th with an 88. Brayden Jones tied for 32nd with a 99.
Lackawanna League divisional champions Abington Heights and Scranton Prep each qualified five players for districts, but were unable to get any through to the state tournament.
Luke Morgan finished one stroke out of a playoff for the Comets in Class 3A where only four players out of 37 advanced. He used a late push with birdies on 15 through 17, his 12th through 14th holes, to finish tied for seventh.
Robby Lucas, who holed out from the fairway for an eagle on the par-4, 15th, was tied for 10th with an 81.
Cade Kelleher was 14th with an 84, Luke Swank tied for 18th with an 88 and Robert Munley tied for 20th with an 89.
Scranton Prep was led by T.J. Stott and Ben Boyanoski, who each shot 87s to tie for 14th.
DISTRICT QUALIFIER
Abington Heights’ Munley shot 77 to finish tied for third when Lackawanna League golfers played their qualifier for the district tournament.
Valley View’s L.V. Pegula finished first with a 74, one shot better than Wallenpaupack’s Kevin Wortmann, the eventual district champion.
Morgan tied for fifth with an 80, Kelleher was tied for eight with an 82 and Lucas and Swank were part of a 10th-place tie with 83s.
A total of 17 players advanced when rain at the end of the round made it impossible to break the tie for the predetermined cutoff of top 16.
June was third among qualifiers in Class 2A with a 75.
Kaufman shot a 5-under-par, 67 and Riverside’s Michael Maslanka had a 71.
Boyanoski led the Prep qualifiers with a 78 to tie for fourth.
Gavin Walsh, a Scranton Prep player from Waverly, tied for sixth with an 80.
Jones made it with an 85 to place ninth.
Domiano shot 91, beating the 93 required to qualify for players in the top 30.
