In its final year of existence, the Chagrin Valley Conference opened the 2014 golf season with its annual preseason tournament on Thursday at Legend Lake Golf Club. The league will disband at the conclusion of the school year.
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| Kirtland freshman Michael Schnur shot 80 to finish second in the Valley Division |
Chagrin Falls scored 315 to win the Chagrin Division and held off defending champion Aurora with 321 strokes. Perry was third with 326.
Berkshire finished with 340 strokes to defend its Valley Division title. Kirtland (351) was second, Independence (359) was third and Cardinal moved up two spots from last season to finish fourth with 393 strokes.
“It’s about balance but obviously you’ve got to have some depth,” said Berkshire coach Dave List. “That’s the name of the game. Today we were fortunate to have enough depth but we realize that from top to bottom we have to play better.”
Sam Fisher (81), Nick Paul (82), Luke Byler (86) and Jarrett Smetana (91) scored for the Badgers with Fisher and Paul finished among the top four individuals in the Valley Division.
Kirtland, who finished second in the Valley Division for the second straight year, was led by freshman Michael Schnur, who shot an 80 to finish as the Valley Division’s runner-up. Brian Beres was fifth with an 82. Michael Johnson finished with an 89 and Michael Knezevic rounded out the Hornets’ lineup with a 100.
“I give a lot of credit to Berkshire,” said Kirtland coach Greg Cosimi. “They played great today. We had our freshman leader who shot 80. He played real well. We had a junior (in Brian Beres) who came back with an 82. That’s great to get out of our first two guys. Ideally we’d like to shave a couple of strokes off that and now we have to work on our consistency and we have to get our other guys to play better. We’ll do that throughout the season.”
Independence junior Tyler Wilson shot a 2-over par 74 to win Valley Division medalist honors. He was tied with Schnur through 13 holes but pulled away down the stretch.
The rest of the Blue Devils couldn’t do enough to knock off the defending champion Badgers or the Hornets.
“I think I was hoping for second,” said Independence coach Mark Echstenkamper. “I thought we could throw up enough for second place but I’m very happy with Tyler Wilson. He had the second best score in the CVC. We’ve just got to find our third and fourth scorers to be competitive in the league. We’ll get better.”
Cardinal, who was last in the Valley Division, moved up two spots this year.
Jerry Tamburro (88), Danny Kninppenburg (98), Tyler Carroll (100) and Brian Schultz (107) scored for the Huskies.
“That wasn’t too bad,” said Cardinal coach Greg McCandless. “I’m pretty pleased with our improvement from last year. We’re headed in the right direction. Our No. 1 (Tamburro) didn’t play last year so it’s nice having him back and we got solid play from our No. 3 (Knippenburg). Danny doesn’t hit it really far but he played solid and made some putts.”
Aurora’s Chris Sloe finished with a 1-over par 73 to win overall medalist honors. Perry’s Nathan Ward and Chagrin Falls’ Daniel Berlin tied for second with a 2-over 74 and Chagrin’s Will Widman and Joe Vince both shot 79 to round out the top five in the Chagrin Division.
TEAM SCORES
Chagrin Division
1. Chagrin Falls 315
2. Aurora 321
3. Perry 326
4. West Geauga 335
5. Orange 341
6. Kenston 344
7. Hawken 390
8. Beachwood 398
Valley Division
1. Berkshire 340
2. Kirtland 351
3. Independence 359
4. Cuyahoga Heights 385
5. Cardinal 393
6. Wickliffe 407
7. Harvey 455
INDIVIDUAL SCORES
Chagrin Division (Top 20)
1. Chris Sloe (Aurora) 73
2. Nathan Ward (Perry) 74
2. Daniel Berlin (Chagrin Falls) 74
4. Will Widman (Chagrin Falls) 79
4. Joe Vinci (Chagrin Falls) 79
6. Joey Carovac (West Geauga) 81
6. Jack Javorsky (Kenston) 81
8. Matt Forrai (West Geauga) 82
8. C.J. Bagdonas (Perry) 82
8. Ben Bagdonas (Perry) 82
8. Parker Barnes (Aurora) 82
8. Adam Marcus (Orange) 82
13. Adam McCullough (Aurora) 83
13. Zach Kirchner (West Geauga) 83
13. Jack Brubaker (Aurora) 83
13. Sam Spaeth (Chagrin Falls) 83
17. Jeremy Thorn (Aurora) 84
17. Gabe Blum (Orange) 84
19. Alex Baker (Chagrin Falls) 85
19. Garrett Bontempo (Chagrin Falls) 85
Valley Division (Top 20)
1. Tyler Wilson (Independence) 74
2. Michael Schnur (Kirtland) 80
3. Sam Fisher (Berkshire) 81
4. Nick Paul (Berkshire) 82
4. Brian Beres (Kirtland) 82
5. Luke Byler (Berkshire) 86
5. Nick Brunsman (Independence) 86
8. Jerry Tamburro (Cardinal) 88
9. Michael Johnson (Kirtland) 89
10. Jarrett Smetana (Berkshire) 91
10. Matt Drockton (Cuyahoga Heights) 91
12. Casey Kotonski (Cuyahoga Heights) 94
13. Matt Colbert (Wickliffe) 97
14. Alec Jendre (Independence) 98
14. Danny Knippenburg (Cardinal) 98
16. Alex Dean (Cuyahoga Heights) 99
17. Michael Knezevic (Kirtland) 100
17. Mike Kehn (Wickliffe) 100
17. Tyler Carroll (Cardinal) 100
20. Joe Zamborsky (Independence) 101
20. Nate Schroeder (Cuyahoga Heights) 101
