Abington Heights, Scranton Prep win District 2 golf team titles

EXETER — The Pittston Area and Wyoming Seminary golf teams could have considered themselves warned.

Four days earlier in the District 2 Individual Championships at Elkview Country Club, Abington Heights had the top four scores in the entire Class 3A field, making the Comets a clear winner even if an all-star team had been created from the rest of the district, let alone in a matchup against one opponent.

Similarly, Scranton Prep was better than the rest of District 2 combined with four of the top five finishers in Class 2A.

Even a change of venue to Pittston Area’s home course and the presence of two reigning district champions and a defending state champion in the Wyoming Seminary lineup could not slow down the Comets and Cavaliers.

The two long-established Lackawanna League powers were dominant Friday at Fox Hill Country Club, establishing big leads on the front nine and extending them on the back nine.

Abington Heights stopped the winningest team in Pittston Area golf history 305-335 for the Class 3A title.

Scranton Prep won a meeting of unbeaten conference champions 304-331 over Wyoming Seminary in the Class 2A match.

The Cavaliers were third in the PIAA championships in Class 2A last season and the Comets were fifth in Class 3A with four of Friday’s five players in the lineup. Thus, they each arrived at Fox Hill with much higher aspirations.

Both will still need to get through a subregional match with District 4 champions to reach their six-team PIAA state fields and return to Penn State.

“These guys got their feet wet,” Abington Heights coach Frank Summa said. “This is basically the same team trying to go back. So, basically with all the seniors we have on the team now, going forward, they saw what it’s like.

“ … They saw the course for the first time last year. And, it should be to our advantage. We’re going to play that course on Monday and Tuesday (Oct. 21-22) with four of the (individual state qualifiers) and then, of course, play it again as a team on Wednesday.”

With postseason championship play underway, teams moved from their six-man lineups of the regular season to the five-team lineups used in PIAA tournaments. They still counted the best four as the team score.

Abington Heights wound up with the two lowest scores of its match with Pittston Area and all five Comets finished better than the second-best Patriot.

District individual champion Cade Kelleher led the way with a 73 and Robert Munley added a 74. Kelleher was even on the front, then Munley was even on the back as the only players to accomplish that in the 3A match.

Noah Gruber led Pittston Area with a 76.

“We called him our anchor,” Patriots coach Jason Miller said of Gruber, who was in the fifth spot, playing three foursomes behind the rest of the Class 3A match with the No. 5 players from each team, including Class 2A. “He’s been solid all season.”

Luke Swank and Robby Lucas had 79s for Abington Heights. Though his score was not used, Robert Bingham finished strong for an 83.

It was too much for the Patriots.

“The kids worked really hard to get to this point,” Miller said. “The last nine weeks of their lives have been putting in the time, the effort and the practice. They’ve been here grinding, hitting balls.”

Chris Scavo shot an 84, Andrew Nocito an 87 and Patrick Ruane an 88 to complete the Pittston Area score. Nick Cook shot a 98.

Scranton Prep’s Cole Powell shot the day’s only even-par round, with a 71. He was 2-under on the back, including birdies on 15 and 17 and seven birdies.

Powell got back to even par by bending in a 15-foot, left-to-right putt on 17, the course’s most difficult green.

“I felt pretty good,” Powell said. “On the front, I was struggling with putting, but on the back, I feel I did that pretty well. I got a lot of putts to fall.”

Brendan Bell added a 74, Jack Pavuk 79, Ben Walsh 80 and Ben Boyanoski 82.

District Class 2A girls champion Anna Zapletalova led Wyoming Seminary with a 73. Nick Werner, the district 2A boys champion and defending state champion, had the second-best back nine of the match with a 37 to wind up at 76 after a slow start, by his standards.

Ayden Wilkinson shot 87, J.P. Hay 95 and Leo Nockley 101 for the Blue Knights.