The Saline Reporter
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Hornets keep streak intact with win at Brighton
Saline wins by three strokes, takes quad and dual meet in SEC
By Jerry Hinnen, Staff Writer
PUBLISHED: April 24, 2008
The streak is alive.
Advertisement
A strong effort by Okemos at Monday's Brighton Invitational saw the Chiefs come within three strokes of Saline's defending state champion boys' golf team. But in the end it was the Hornets who walked away with the championship after shooting a team total of 298, keeping their unbroken string of first-place finishes since the start of the 2006 season intact.
"Brighton's always been a big test for us and we didn't have an opportunity to play a practice round there, so a few of our guys were playing it blind," said Saline head coach Carol Melcher. "But we did our best to prepare and we played pretty well."
The Hornets were led by captain Matt Paterini, whose 71 was good enough for even par at the Oak Pointe Golf Club and tied him for the tournament's low individual score. The senior lost medallist honors on the second hole of a playoff, but after his lowest score of the season, Paterini wasn't too bothered.
"That's one of those things that happens," Melcher said of the playoff, "but we were very happy to see him put together the kind of round he's capable of. He birdied his last two holes and felt pretty good about that, so that was nice to see."
Paterini, as always, had plenty of help. Junior Phil Gieseker followed just four strokes back with a four-over 75, tying for 11th overall individually. Senior Nick Campbell and sophomore Peter Spittler each carded a 76, putting all four Saline scorers in the tournament's top 24 and putting the Hornets just under the 300 mark.
Fifth golfer junior Nick Areddy also shot under the 80-stroke mark with a 78.
It was Spittler who paced the Hornets to their first win of the week, a six-stroke victory at last Thursday's initial Southeastern Conference quad meet of the season.
Playing nine holes at Bedford's "The Legacy" course in Ottawa Lake, Spittler ran off a string of four birdies and carded a one-under, career-best round of 35 to grab medallist honors and lead Saline to a one-over team total of 145. Ann Arbor Huron placed second with a 151.
"He was pumped," Melcher said of Spittler. "He was putting out of his mind. Every now and then you get on a run like that."
Spittler was followed by Gieseker and Campbell with a pair of 36's while Areddy rounded out the Hornet scoring with a 38. Paterini shot 39 while junior Eric Brooks finished with a 44.
The Hornets continued their strong play Tuesday afternoon with an overpowering 29-stroke dual meet victory over Adrian over nine holes on their home course of Brookside.
Paterini led the way with a 33, followed closely by Areddy's 34, Gieseker's 36, and Campbell's 37. The team total of 140 put the Hornets at four-under par as a team for the day and only a handful of strokes behind the program record, set last season.
It was just one more piece of evidence for Melcher that the Hornets are, in fact, ahead of schedule in their quest to defend their state title.
"We're playing extremely well right now," she said. "They're a group that likes to compete."
Not all stories are guaranteed to appear
online. The Web edition contains a reasonable
sampling of the print edition stories.
For the most complete news coverage, we invite you to
subscribe
to the print edition of the paper.
Expanded
Web
Coverage
Staff Blog, "Inside The Newsroom"
TOP JOBS
