MOUNT OLIVE — Grady Gore didn’t start his round at the Morris County Tournament particularly well. On the first hole of the gold course, he hit into a thorn bush. Spotting an opening, Gore tried to hit out of hit and wound up tearing the skin off the pointer finger of his right hand.
Despite all the bandages, Gore helped his Delbarton teammates defend their Morris County Tournament golf title on Wednesday afternoon at Flanders Valley. Senior Jake Kurtzman led the Green Wave with a 3-over 75, good for fourth place individually despite double and triple bogeys.
Delbarton totaled 309 strokes, two better than Mendham. But for Kurtzman, it felt even closer.
Unlike last season, when the Green Wave came into the MCT with multiple tournament wins, they hadn’t brought home any hardware this spring. Delbarton was tied with Ridge going into the last hole at Hunterdon Central’s Red Devil Invitational on April 25, but lost by one stroke. The Green Wave placed fourth at the Blue Devil Invitational, and sixth at St. Joseph’s Green Knights Invitational.
The iWanamaker app took some of the drama out of the MCT, with many players refreshing results on their phone as they walked from hole to hole.
“We squeezed it out,” said Kurtzman, a Madison resident. “It was definitely in my head a little bit coming down the stretch. We talked about it all season: resiliency. It felt good to come away with it. … Last year, we were on a tear. We were expecting to win. This year, we hadn’t crossed the finish line. It’s a good tournament to win with sectionals next week – good momentum.”
Many of these teams will play at NJSIAA North 1 and 2 sectional tournaments on Monday and Tuesday, followed by the Tournament of Champions. Dover entered the MCT for the first time, with three golfers.
“We had some ups and downs, but we got the win,” said Gore, a Delbarton junior. “It’s an honor. It feels good to come out with expectations and deliver.”
Randolph junior Achal Agnihotri was the individual medalist with a 2-under 70, birdying 1 and 15 and shooting an eagle on 11.
“I haven’t been playing well recently,” said Agnihotri, who started playing golf four years ago with his father. “My putting has been a struggle, but I stayed patient out there.”
Liam Pasternak of Morristown finished second for the second year in a row. Madison senior Alex Patel, who had finished second two years ago, was third on Wednesday. Both Pasternak and Patel finished at 1-over, which was decided on a match of cards.
“I started off a little rough, but I came back well,” said Patel, who had three bogeys and was 3-over through four holes. “I started remembering some of the holes from last year. When I got to the back, I knew it was more open so I played more aggressively.”
MCT team scores
Delbarton 309 (Grady Gore 77, Matt Lu 79, Will Kramer 78, Jake Kurtzman 75); Mendham 311 (Michael Pschar 80, Seth Harris 79, Liam Brandt 76, Anders Farley 76); Randolph 315 (Achal Agnihotri 70, Brayden Meditz 79, Tanner Beaudin 85, Riley Brown 81); Madison 316 (Blake Steele 75, Teo Bengtsson 81, Theo Bruns 87, Alex Patel 73); Mountain Lakes 316 (Ryan Lalin 79, Quentin Maute 80, Ryan Powers 79, Max Troisi 78); Chatham 316 (Brady O’Reilly 79, Luke Nowicki 85, Will Desmarais 77, Roger Rice 77); Montville 323 (Brody Hammer 90, Shawn Yudkin 81, Dylan Kaufman 75, Henry White 77); West Morris 330 (Bryan Rainforth 82, John Gallup 83, Layton Cummings 83, Sohan Madane 82); Morris Knolls 333 (Nick Tecchio 85, Keith Fitzsimmons 82, Adam Goldstein 81, Colin Shally 85); Morristown 337 (Aidan Williams 87, Jake Lobel 90, Liam Pasternak 73, Ian Wetherbee 87); Pequannock 338 (Ryan Hayzler 90, Maxwell Diee 80, Derek Czepiel 81, Braydon Van Lenten 87); Morristown Beard 341 (Jack Kornett 85, Lucas Krzanowski 88, Brian O’Neill 89, Drew Levy 79); Jefferson 348 (Michael Baumann 95, Ryan Saletto 86, Zachary Geise 83, Lucas Studnick 84); Kinnelon 363 (Jack Doty 97, Alex Csigo 85, Brady Grippo 86, Kenneth Klein 95); Roxbury 375 (Brian Schraft 98, Michael Mineo 94, Mike Nelson 85, Ryan Van Zile 98); Mount Olive 387 (Michael Soriano 101, Talon Muscolino 93, Tanner Perez 88, Ryan Juckett 104); Parsippany Hills 403 (Michael Rescigno 103, Connor Johnson 112, Rohit Viswanath 86, Gabriel Olsen 102); Park Regional 404 (Frankie Scrocco 96, Tyler Leonard 106, Matt McDermott 98, Colin Mullooly 104); Morris Tech 405 (Andrew Dolce 97, T.J. Wangchuk 87, Brayden Uglione 108, Bryce Lombardo 113); Morris Hills 426 (Luke Chelel 108, Nathaniel Hong 92, Anthony Barletti 116, Anthony Iapicca 110); Morris Catholic 436 (Cameron Westrick 115, Jack Smitreski 120, A.J. Gervasio 91, Ryan Lukis 110); Parsippany 451 (Caleb Swicinski 122, Xavier Ward 117, Omar Amin 130, Griffin Weiss 82)
Butler (A.J. Kilmat 110, Adam Avery 75)
Dover Ryan Lombardi 142, Yunuel Rosales 143)
Individual medalists
Achal Agnotri (Randolph) 70; Liam Pasternak (Morristown) 73; Alex Patel (Madison) 73; Jake Kurtzman (Delbarton) 75; Dylan Kaufman (Montville) 75; Adam Avery (Butler) 75; Blake Steele (Madison) 75; Roger Rice (Chatham) 75; Anders Farley (Mendham) 76; Liam Brandt (Mendham) 76
Par 72, Gold to Red at Flanders Valley
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