BOYS GOLF: Lake Orion stays hot, captures Oakland County tournament title WITH VIDEO
Roy J. Akers Video Story: Individual Medalist story including tournament highlights http://youtu.be/G-CCVUD7TaARoy J. Akers Video Story:
Lake Orion wins Oakland County tournament by 12 strokes over the field
http://youtu.be/QQoIoFLoIfM
Lake Orion's Waelchli shoots 2-under par to win medalist
Lake Orion High School golfer Alex Waelchli watches his tee shot during the Oakland County golf tournament at Pontiac Country Club, Wednesday May 15, 2013. (Oakland Press Photo:Vaughn Gurganian) 
Brother Rice High School golfer Jeremy Ball chips onto the green during the Oakland County golf tournament at Pontiac Country Club, Wednesday May 15, 2013. (Oakland Press Photo:Vaughn Gurganian) 
Lakeland High School golfer Jake Kneen watches his tee shot during the Oakland County golf tournament at Pontiac Country Club, Wednesday May 15, 2013. (Oakland Press Photo:Vaughn Gurganian)
Lake Orion High School golfer Mason Gorris hits an iron shot onto the green during the Oakland County golf tournament at Pontiac Country Club, Wednesday May 15, 2013. (Oakland Press Photo:Vaughn Gurganian) Coming off a tie for first last Monday at the NexTee Invitational that featured several of the best teams in the state, Lake Orion backed that performance up by making history nine days later, winning its first Oakland County championship in school history on a windy, but warm and sunshine-filled day at Pontiac Country Club.
The Dragons had four golfers shoot 82 or lower and finished with a final score of 303, 12 shots ahead of second-place Novi Detroit Catholic Central.
Farmington and Rochester Adams tied for third at 316 (Farmington won the fifth-golfer tiebreaker), Stoney Creek was fifth at 318 while defending Division 1 state champion Birmingham Brother Rice, defending Division 2 state champion Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood, Clarkston and Novi each shot a 320.
No doubt, winning its first county title and once again besting traditional state powers like Catholic Central and Brother Rice at a big tournament shows why Lake Orion should be in the conversation when the topic of state title contenders comes up as the season winds down.
“They are always the watermark,” Lake Orion head coach Monty Gallaher said. “Those are great programs and I think we run a great program. Hopefully we just are there every year.”
As has been the case and likely will be the case the rest of the year, Lake Orion was led by its two four-year varsity standouts, seniors Alex Waelchli and Mason Gorris.
Waelchli continued his torrid play of late, shooting a 2-under par round of 70 to earn medalist honors. Waelchli also shot a 67 last week at the NexTee Invitational to finish first there.
“I just made a bunch of putts,” Waelchli said. “I only had 25 all day. They just kept going in. The rest of my game was pretty solid, but the putting helped me get the ball up and down.”
Waelchli had plenty of help, starting with Gorris, who shot a 74 to finish in a three-way tie for third with Eric Busa of Rochester Adams and Michael Busse of Rochester. Cranbrook’s Dylan Deogun finished second with a 72.
Sophomore Schuyler Werth shot a 77 and Griffin Beeler had an 82 to complete the scoring for Lake Orion, which is starting to develop a top-four that is as good as anyone in the state.
“The last couple of years we’ve been inches away from that last final leg, the state finals,” said Gallaher, referring to a pair of fourth-place finishes at the regional tournament the past two years where the top-three teams qualify for the state tournament. “That’s our goal. It has been since day one of this season or since the last day of last season. That’s been our focus to not outplay ourselves. We need to just play our game. Don’t try to live up to anybody’s expectation except your own.”
Lake Orion and the rest of the county teams will now focus the next two weeks on finishing off the league portion of their schedule before turning their attention to the district qualifying stage of the state tournament that starts on May 29.
E-mail Keith Dunlap at keith.dunlap@oakpress.com; Twitter @kd2578.
Oakland County Division I tournament
(at Pontiac Country Club, par 72)
TEAM FINISH — Lake Orion 303; Novi Detroit Catholic Central 315; Farmington 316; Rochester Adams 316; Stoney Creek 318; Birmingham Brother Rice 320; Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood 320; Clarkston 320; Novi 320; Rochester 322; Pontiac Notre Dame Prep 324; South Lyon 325; Bloomfield Hills Andover 327; Lakeland 328; North Farmington 329; Oxford 332; Troy 335; Orchard Lake St. Mary’s 337; Walled Lake Central 338; Birmingham Groves 340; Walled Lake Northern 343; Auburn Hills Oakland Christian 357; Ortonville Brandon 358; Auburn Hills Avondale 375; Birmingham Seaholm 379.
TOP INDIVIDUALS — Alex Waelchli (Lake Orion) 70; Dylan Deogun (Cranbrook) 72; Mason Gorris (LO) 74; Eric Busa (Adams) 74; Michael Busse (Rochester) 74; Justin Pahl (Lakeland) 75; Brendon Graham (Clarkston) 76; Kyle Gaines (Brother Rice) 76; Spencer Lendzion (Stoney Creek) 76; Phil Ritchie (Catholic Central) 77; Brad Kozinski (Novi) 77; Garret Buckley (Novi) 77; Gavin Garris (South Lyon) 77; Kyle Petrovich (Andover) 77
LAKE ORION (303) — Alex Waelchli 70; Mason Gorris 74; Schuyler Werth 77; Griffin Beeler 82; Patrick Cummins 100
CATHOLIC CENTRAL (315) — Phil Ritchie 77; Corey Szmadzinski 79; Glen Piot 79; Charlie Green 80; Dominic Mancinelli 84
FARMINGTON (316) — Connor Greenlee 76; Vishaal Amin 76; Nick Heffron 81; Matt LeGault 83; Matt Goldi 85
ADAMS (316) — Eric Busa 74; Zach Adams 79; Marcus Robinson 80; Britton Skinner 83; Matt Donoughe 89
STONEY CREEK (318) — Spencer Lendzion 76; Michael Doyle 78; Eric Autio 81; Richie Ingle 83; Michael Linihan 84
BROTHER RICE (320) — Kyle Gaines 76; Joey Hildebrand 81; Max Ritter 81; Jeremy Ball 82; Jeremy Glod 87
CRANBROOK (320) — Dylan Deogun 72; Alex Papa 82; Matt Jacobs 82; Todd Fridline 84; Keegan Balk 86
CLARKSTON (320) — Brendon Graham 76; Jack Alli 79; Luke Nesbitt 82; Alex Genter 83; Nick Badgley 87
NOVI (320) — Brad Kozinski 77; Garret Buckley 77; Mike Wenzl 79; Bryan Fegert 87; Billy Ulle 87
ROCHESTER (322) — Michael Busse 74; Jared Nylund 82; Scott Difilippo 83; Ludovic Clavette-Lachapelle 83; Mike Murri 85
ND PREP (324) — Ryan Lesser 79; Jack Zohoury 79; Tyler Jackson 82; Danny Craig 84; Jack Dimefski 85
SOUTH LYON (325) — Gavin Garris 77; Mitchell Stump 79; Kyle Koehler 81; Zach DeLine 88; Nate Copp 89
ANDOVER (327) — Kyle Petrovich 77; Alex Zach 80; Brandon Steingold 82; James Welsh 88; Dan Welsh 91
LAKELAND (328) — Justin Pahl 75; Jake Kneen 78; Alex Kleckner 80; Owen Skrelunas 95; Justin LaFrance WD
N. FARMINGTON (329) — Austin Alexander 80; Ryan Masell 80; Jon Pierret 81; Neal Kedharnath 88; Evan Rabban 94
OXFORD (332) — J.J. Lewis 78; Doug Schultz 81; Matt Prince 86; Rolly Giberson 87; Eric Curtis 88
TROY (335) — Christian Harnishfeger 80; Jimmy McQuiston 83; Manak Singh 84; Zach Bauer 88; Jimmy Barrett 92
ST. MARY’S (337) — Kitt Koolwick 80; Kyle Rybicki 85; Danny Tinsman 85; Jon Waring 87; John McGwire 88
W.L. CENTRAL (338) — Victor Niston 81; Adam Radke 84; Connor Charette 85; Evan Brunt 88; Chase O’Dette 88
GROVES (340) — Jordan Bohannon 81; Calvin Greer 84; Bobby VanFaussien 87; Johnny Reid 88; Ken O’Hanlon 91
W.L. NORTHERN (343) — Phil Carter 82; Ryan Dykstra 82; Max Lowe 86; Ian McMillen 93; Evan Bahm 95
O. CHRISTIAN (357) — John VanNoord 78; Aaron Kostich 89; Spencer Haupert 94; Austin Miller 9; Jimmy Kern 101
BRANDON (358) — Tyler Lewis 82; Jason Quintanilla 87; Lyric Nazar 92; Jake Selak 97; Zack Duff 104
AVONDALE (375) — Nikolas Senkowski 82; Ryan Petersen 93; Ryan Lee 98; Steven Schaller 102; Sam Jacobson 116
SEAHOLM (379) — Alex Tropea 81; Jack Corbett 87; John Steinmetz 100; Ryan Head 111; Gibson Baltz WD
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