Despite losses to graduation, Sewickley rebuilds in a hurry

Tri-State Sports & News Service

Sewickley Academy was supposed to be in something of a rebuilding mode this year.

After all, the Panthers lost quite a few players to graduation and had a relatively untested lineup heading into the season and several challengers appeared to be nipping at their heels.

In the end, though, Sewickley Academy did what it always seems to do. The Panthers won their section and earned a spot in the WPIAL team semifinals Tuesday at either River Forest or Indian Run with the chance to play at Cedarbrook in the championships on the line.

“These guys have been incredible and most of our scores have been in the 170s and 180s, but it’s been so smooth. We don’t have the experience at this time of the year as we did with some of our other teams,” Sewickley Academy coach Win Palmer said. “We’re going to be under pressure as favorites going into the team playoffs and we accept that, but there are a lot of very good teams and very good players out there and we accept that.”

Sewickley Academy showed the depth of its program in the WPIAL Class 2A individual finals last week when senior Cole Luther lost in a one-hole playoff to defending champion Skyler Fox of Riverside. Not only was it the first time he had ever appeared in a playoff, but it was his first time ever playing in the finals.

Last year he was the No. 9 golfer on the Sewickley Academy depth chart.

“The team playoffs are way more important,” Luther said. “To have this kind of confidence heading into the team playoffs is crucial.”

Luther and senior Will Nocito were the only individual players from Sewickley Academy to move on to the PIAA Western Regional qualifier Oct. 16 at Tom’s Run, but the Panthers had five players in the 41person field which bodes well for their chances at five in a row.

“Our guys were under the gun and our sophomore [J.F. Aber] and junior [Landon Shirley] didn’t play to the best of their ability and our seniors played super,” Palmer said. “They were all nervous and I believe that is just going to prepare us for teams.”

Class 3A boys

Central Catholic has been up for challenges all year.

Not only did the Vikings play in one of the most competitive sections in the WPIAL, four of its top five players made it through the semifinals to the WPIAL Class 3A individual golf finals Tuesday at Nemacolin.

Now Central Catholic faces its toughest challenge to date.The Vikings will head to either Linden Hall or Ponderosa as the defending Class 3A champions. And it isn’t like the Vikings won going away as they needed a course-record 378 to beat Section 4 rival Fox Chapel by one stroke and two-time defending champion Peters Township by two in what may have been one of the closest matchesin WPIAL history.

“We’re lucky to be in it because we were in a very tough section,” Central Catholic coach Corey O’Connor said. “I think getting back to the finals will certainly be an accomplishment and, with the way it is, you have to prepare for the semifinals first and go from there.”

Having individuals compete for a WPIAL title just a few days before might seem helpful. But there is a chance it might not translate as well to the team competition.

“I don’t look at that as much,” O’Connor said. “It’s great we have four players going to the finals, but it’s completely different when you’re playing for your teammates and you have to have a totally different mind-set.”