On Monday the 11th at West Seattle Golf Course, Bishop Blanchet and Eastside Catholic’s boys and girls teams squared off in their first official matches of the season. Coming off a 2022 Metro Team Championship, Blanchet was hoping to keep the momentum going into the new campaign.
West Seattle is arguably the hardest of the three courses in conference play this year, with a slope rating of 126 for the boys and 125 for the girls, as well as a par of 37 for the 9 holes the teams would be playing, so it was expected that scores would be a little higher than usual.
The girls’ teams started first and arrived first back from the course. When the first group came in, it already looked quite good for Eastside, as their 1 and 2 starters, Nicole Koong and Kaitlin Ojendyk, had both scored 40, while their Blanchet counterparts, Riley Chan and Joie Ciro, scored 47 and 49, respectively. As the girls began to finish and the scores were submitted, it continued to look good for Eastside. Notable scores for both sides included a 51 for EC’s 7th seeded Sara Marti, and a 50 for Blanchet’s 5th seeded Ali Wistrom.
Once the last group came in, scores were tallied and it was ruled that Eastside’s girls had won pretty comfortably by 10 strokes, with huge contributions from Koong and Ojendyk sealing the win for the Crusaders.
The boys’ teams started immediately after the girls, with the duo of Ian Hufford and Steven Feng in the 1 and 2 spots for Eastside, and Henry Day and Wayne He representing Bishop Blanchet. As the scores came in, it looked closer and closer. Day and He both had great days, with 38 and 39 strokes respectively, while Hufford scored an impressive 37, which was par for the course, and Feng had a 42. As scores came in, both sides had impressive scores. The most notable scores for the Crusaders were a 39 for Luke Powell, a 42 for August Leinweber, and a 43 from Miles Norman.
For the Bears the most notable scores were a 40 for Colby Conrad, a 42 from Lewis Greenan, as well as 3 43s. In the end, when the scores were tallied and all non-qualifying scores were removed, it was revealed that Blanchet had won by a sheer 4 strokes and resulting in a final score of 139-135.
The Crusaders will be travelling to Jackson Golf Course to take on Lakeside on Friday, September 15th. The boys will be hoping to get their first win of the season and the girls will be looking to stay undefeated against Lakeside, who will be playing in their first match of the year.
Featured Image credit: @BBHSAthletics
