LONDON GROVE – A boys’ golf season that started with a slew of close dual meets ended that way Tuesday.
Ches-Mont National foes Downingtown West and Avon Grove battled to a 194-194 stalemate at Inniscrone Golf Club after the top five scores were recorded for each side. The first tiebreaker in a match of cards of the sixth place finishers was also a wash, so it went to the seventh scores, where the visiting Whippets prevailed by two strokes.
“As a team we didn’t play terrible, but I thought we did pretty well for the conditions,” said West senior Aiden Muir. “Some of the pin placements were very hard. It was very tough mentally out there.”
With the narrow win, the Whippets wrapped up the Ches-Mont National regular season at 10-2 to take a half-game lead over West Chester Henderson. But the Warriors can even it up with a win over Bishop Shanahan later this week.
Henderson topped the Eagles by 18 strokes on Monday, and the Warriors own a complicated tiebreaker against Downingtown West.
“Now that it looks like we are going to be in second place in our division, it is a reality check,” said Whippets’ head coach Nick Wolfe. “But we are feeling pretty good about Monday and the guys know they have to perform well.”
Monday is the Ches-Mont Championship at Wyncote Golf Club. Unless something unexpected happens, West will need to finish in front of the second place team from the C-M American (either West Chester Rustin or Unionville) in order to advance to districts as a team.
“For our team, we have the players, we just have to go out and do it,” Muir said.
It was another tough day for the hard-luck Red Devils (8-4, 8-5 overall), who have now dropped home matches to Henderson and West by a combined one shot.
“At the end of the day we are not happy being unable to play to our potential, but our guys battled and I am happy about that,” said Avon Grove head coach Cory Bauer. “They are disappointed right now, which means they care. These guys are invested.”
The Whippets topped the Devils 185-192 at Downingtown Country Club four days earlier. And Wolfe’s squad boasts eight players with a season average of 39.7 or better for nine holes. Despite that, West has already dropped two dual meets, which is two more than in 2023 and 2024 combined. And every player is back from a year ago.
“I think the competition is definitely improving. Last season we saw a lot of scores in the 200s. I don’t think we saw any scores in the 200s all season,” Muir said.
“Like many teenagers, they are driving and working, and their priorities change,” Wolfe added. “That’s been a struggle for us. Also, we did probably feel we were invincible because we hadn’t lost in a long time heading into this season.”
Whippets’ junior Ian Larson shared medalist honors with Avon Grove senior Drew Kennedy at 1-over-par 36. Seniors Avery O’Neill (38), Muir (39) and Ryan O’Donnell (40) also chipped in for West. Three others shot identical 41s for the Whippets: Anthony Vigorita, Justin Marcus and Cole Amann for the fifth through seventh scores.
“A lot of credit to Avon Grove,” Wolfe said. “It means a lot to us that we were able to match them on their senior night. To do it we needed everybody up to our seventh score to break the tie.”
West wound up eking it out thanks to some clutch play down the stretch. Muir, for example, took a double bogey on the short par-3 fifth hole to go 4-over for his round. But he regrouped to play even-par the rest of the way.
“I was pretty frustrated, but I knew it was time to turn it up,” Muir said.
“I was saying a lot of bad things and I was down on myself. I remember thinking to myself, ‘you are a lot better than this.’”
Two other Whippets – Vigorita and O’Donnell – finished with pars on the ninth hole, and it made a big difference.
“They didn’t know it at the time that we needed it, but they kept persevering,” Wolfe said.
The Devils got a 37 from junior Gus Stoltzfus and a pair of 40s from junior James DelCoglin and sophomore Evan Adams. Avon Grove lost all-league and all-area senior Trevor Sikorski early in the season to a knee injury.
“I think we had Trevor for three matches,” Bauer said. “He’s obviously a great player, but we have depth on this team and were able to compete at a high level the rest of the way. Downingtown West is a great team and it could have gone either way today.
“Of course having a guy like (Sikorski) would have been a great asset for our team.”
Despite some bad luck this season and on Tuesday, Bauer added: “I don’t want to dwell on a putt that didn’t go in here, or a bounce off the cartpath that put us in a hazard. There were unlucky breaks for both teams.”
Downingtown West 194, Avon Grove 194
Par 35 at Inniscrone GC
Downingtown West: Larson 36, O’Neill 38, Muir 39, O’Donnell 40, Vigorita 41, Marus 41, Amann 41.
Avon Grove: Kennedy 36, Stoltzfus 37, DelCoglin 40, Adams 40, Cornell 41, Nowland 41, Boyle 43.
Source: Berkshire mont
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