Prep leads list of local standouts at golf sectionals

In any other year, the St. John’s Prep golf team’s performance in the Division 1 North sectional would have been plenty good enough to take the title home.But the Eagles and the rest of the 16-team field were met by a buzzsaw from Billerica on Monday at Beverly Golf & Tennis Club.Led by Jonah Choe’s sectional best round of 1-under 69, the Indians recorded a team score of 291, good enough for a six-shot win over the Eagles. Lincoln-Sudbury (309) was third and Andover (313) fourth to make up the quartet of schools heading to next Monday’s state finals at The International in Bolton.”I’ve never seen a score as low as 291 in all my years doing this,” Prep coach Larry O’Neill said. “My hat’s off to Billerica. We knew they were a good team, having played them a couple weeks ago. The finals are going to be very interesting.”How good was Billerica’s performance on Monday? The Indians actually finished with three of the five best individual scores in the tournament as Steve Parise shot 72 and Brandon Kuzmich added a 73.”There’s no doubt that their guys played phenomenal,” O’Neill said of Billerica. “Sure, we’re disappointed we didn’t win. But we still played very well.”In fact, the Eagles put four of their six golfers into the top 12 that qualified for the individual championship next week. The Prep was led by a 73 from Nick Pandelena and a 74 by Nick McLaughlin, putting them in a tie for third and fifth, respectively.The pleasant surprise of the day for the Eagles came from Brandon Bingel, who shot 5-over 75 along with teammate Tim Cunningham. Lynn native Mike Cole also shot 75 for Malden Catholic.”Pandelena and McLaughlin felt like they could have played a little better but Tim and Brandon really were solid for us,” O’Neill said. “And having four players go on for us is neat. It’s only the second time I can think of that it’s happened for us.”Peabody’s Athan Goulos shot 77, missing the individual cut by two shots.Division 2 NorthAt Hillview CC in North Reading, Masconomet bested Concord-Carlisle by five shots to take the title, with Pentucket in third.Marblehead finished sixth with a score of 321, led by rounds of 75 from Andrew Scholnick and 78 by Trevor Jones. Beverly finished with a 328 and Salem, led by an 82 from Tim Richmond, came in at 334.Division 3 NorthAt Far Corners GC in West Boxford, Weston and Wayland once again were in the mix with the Wildcats pulling out a scant one-shot win over Hamilton-Wenham, with Wayland in third at 325.NEC South champion Winthrop finished at 356 with St. Mary’s, led by an 83 from Chris Price, at 357 and Swampscott was at 364.NEC Open Champion George Merry of Danvers was third individually at 77, earning a spot in the state finals at Glen Ellen CC next Monday.