By: J. Daniel Pearson
With a pair of second place district finishes, the St. Cloud boys and girls golf teams have punched their tickets to the 2024 Class 3A, Region Championship next week.
On Tuesday, the Bulldog boys — led by freshman Arnold Pouncy’s one-under 71– shot a solid four-over team score of 292 – five shots behind district champion Viera (287) but a comfortable 19 shots ahead of third place Lake Nona (311) to grab the second automatic qualifier spot for next Monday’s (Nov. 4) Regional Championship at Stoneybrook West Golf Club in Orlando.
“Extremely pleased with how our team performed today,” St. Cloud coach Jeremy Velazquez said. “Our ball striking by all four players was pretty good today, Viera just made a few more putts that we did. But when you get four players who are all shooting in the low 70s, you can’t ask for a lot more than that.”
Pouncy was the star of the day for the Bulldogs.
He made five birdies, 10 pars, two bogeys and one double over the long 6,737-yard course. He was a solid three under par through 13, before stumbling with a double bogey on the difficult, 427-yard, 14th. He rallied for a birdie on 16 and scrambled with a par-bogey finish for his 71. That was good enough to earn runner-up medalist honors, trailing only Viera’s Kim Shayan (68).
“I really felt I putted extremely well today,” Pouncy said of his round. “I made a lot of birdies; while keeping the mistakes to a minimum.”
But as has been the case all season, it was a total team effort by the Bulldogs that sent them to regionals. Senior Espn Pool, who won the Orange Belt Conference Championship a week ago with a blistering 68, bogeyed the final hole but still shot one-over 73. Junior Ethan Parrish and Dominick Velazquez shot matching two-over par 74s to round out the St. Cloud scoring.
Although the Bulldogs made a solid run at the district crown, Viera was just a bit too strong on this day. In addition to Shayan, the Hawks had matching par 72s from Arth Sinha and Alexander Bercea and Turin Duber – playing out of the five hole – shot the fourth counting score at three-over 75.
Logan Leistner’s 75 paced Lake Nona’s third place finish, but the Lions will have to wait for the rankings to come out to see if they qualify for the next round as an at-large team.
Celebration (392) and Tohopekaiga (410) finished a distant ninth and 11th in the 13-team field; although Tohopekaliga’s Nick Lehto shot a solid two-over 74 and will advance to regionals as an individual.
The top two teams in each region will advance to the state championships on Nov. 19-20 at Mission Inn. In addition, four team at-large spots will go to the four highest ranked non-qualifying teams across all regions. “Once you get to regionals, every team is pretty good,” Velazquez added. “We will be playing on a different course that is not as wide open, so it will be important for us to stay within ourselves and try not to do too much.”
On Monday, the Lady Bulldogs also qualified for next week’s regional — earning the spot with a second place finish of 321. The total edged out third place Viera for the automatic bid by just four shots (325). As expected, state power Lake Nona took the district championship with a score of 20-over, 308.
Freshman Abigail Murphy led the way for St. Cloud with a three-over 75. Junior Karolyna Adams shot 78, Maddie Burda was at 80 and Olivia Siegel shot an 88. The second place finish automatically advances the Lady Bulldogs to history Monday’s (Nov. 4) Region 2 Championship at Royal St. Cloud Golf Club.
Viera’s Mikayla Arold and Hannah Hall tied Lake Nona freshman Alexandra Snyder for medalist honors at one-under par 71, with Arold winning the district championship with a chip in birdie from 35-feet on the first playoff hole. Lake Nona’s Sofia MacApagal also made the medal stand with a fourth place 74.
If the Lady Bulldogs secure one of the top two automatic qualifying bids or if they gain one of four at-large spots regionals, they can set some county golf history by becoming the first golf team (boys or girls) in Osceola County history to qualify for the FHSAA State Championship Tournament for four years in a row.
Last year, they tied the county record of three straight championship appearances held by the St. Cloud boys team. That group, which included Brett Adams, Justin Biggs, Matt Denzler, Bryant Fannin, Nick Duffy, Brett Fannin and Mike Smith posted consecutive finishes of fifth, fourth and third in the state championship tournament from 1994-96. The Lady Bulldogs finished fourth in last year’s 3A Tournament.
