James Wood places seventh at Licklider golf tourney

FRONT ROYAL — The James Wood High School golf team will have to wait until Aug. 12 to compete on the course again, but if Wednesday’s results from Shenandoah Valley Golf Club are any indication, the Colonels are on track for a successful season.

James Wood led all five local schools at Wednesday’s 24th Curly Licklider Memorial Golf Invitational — which counts all six scores for a team instead of the traditional four — with a total score of 490, placing seventh out of 25 teams.

In the tournament, the No. 1 and No. 2 golfers on each team played on the Red and Blue nines, a par-72 combination. The No. 3 and No. 4 golfers played on the White and Red nines, and the No. 5 and No. 6 golfers played on the Red and Blue nines, which are both par-71 combinations.

James Wood senior Brayden Rockwell played on the par-72 combination and led all local area golfers with a 2-over par 74.

“I didn’t really have my best day, but I was able to scramble around and made a lot of putts that were really nice to make, so it was kind of back and forth, but the course was nice,” said Rockwell, who made the All-Area Golf First Team last year after recording a stroke average of 76.3.

Rockwell added that hole eight on the Blue nine was his most troublesome hole, as he shanked his tee shot into a tree and chunked his second shot for an eventual bogey.

Along with Rockwell, seniors Jake Bursey and Ian Longo both scored a 76 for James Wood. Bursey played on the Red and Blue nines while Longo played on the White and Red nines. Senior Lauren Van Horn also scored an 11-over par 82 playing alongside Longo. Seniors Laney Stiles and Jay Bartlett finished with an 88 and 94, respectively, to round out the Colonels’ scoring.

“Today went really well,” said James Wood head coach David Oates, who has led the Colonels’ golf team since 2013. “We got off to a little slow start. It was wet here, and our kids haven’t played in the bad conditions, but they battled it out. Brayden, Ian and Jake played really well, and Lauren was playing really well. She had one bad hole, but our low four score would have been 308, which is outstanding for us.”

Two days prior to Wednesday’s invitational, the Colonels captured the Class 4 Northwestern District mini tournament at the South Wales Golf Course in Jeffersonton by 14 strokes. Rockwell shot a 1-under par 70 in that tournament.

Clarke County was the next local team behind James Wood on Wednesday, finishing 17th with a 538 total score. Sophomore Grace Trent led the team with a 9-over par 81 on the Red and Blue nines. Emmet Morris scored a 11-over par 82, and junior Jonah Ziercher hit a 14-over par 85.

Handley was right behind Clarke County with a six-person score of 541, placing 18th in the invitational. The Judges’ top two golfers were seniors Nash Sharma and Adam Rosenfels, who scored an 81 and 85, respectively.

“[We’re a] really young and inexperienced team,” Handley head coach Troy Mezzatesta said. “We’ve just got to get used to how to play golf when it’s not going exactly as we want and how to fight through that. The more we put ourselves out there, the better that’ll be. Our numbers were a little higher than they would have liked, or I would have liked, but we’re working on gaining that real-time experience.”

Sherando’s 548 six-person score earned 19th place in the invitational, but first-year head coach Jonah Pearson saw encouraging moments on Wednesday, such as senior Jackson Hepner’s 11-over par 82.

“I was really proud of the way we battled, for sure,” said Pearson, a former golfer for Sherando who graduated in 2017. “Short game was a little bit rough, but that’s expected at the beginning of the year. All in all, we had some guys step up. Jackson Hepner, a senior for us, shot our low round of the day from being in the third spot, and that was huge. We’re getting to the point where we’re closer to being competitive with these local schools, so it’s definitely a step in the right direction from last year.”

Millbrook finished Wednesday in 23rd with a 579 team score, as sophomores Tyler Learn and Trenton Conley both shot an 84.

Independence — the only school to field two teams in Wednesday’s invitational — won the tournament with a 423 team score and had three sub-70 individual stroke counts. Keya Naik — who has verbally committed to Clemson — scored a 6-under par 66, and Ashika Vurati scored a 4-under par 67 to help Independence win by 24 strokes over Freeman. Other tournament runners-up were Donald McDougall of Stone Bridge and Addie Doroh of Albemarle with a 67.

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