May 3, 2008

Sectional golf event looks super competitive

Carlmont, St. Francis earn at-large berths

By John Reid / Daily News Staff Writer

Twenty-four teams and a bevy of ambitious individuals dive into next week's Central Coast Section boys golf qualifying regionals. The regionals are to be held Tuesday and Wednesday at Rancho Canada West Golf Club in Carmel Valley. The CCS championship is there May 13.

While Menlo-Atherton and Menlo School already qualified out of the Peninsula Athletic League, Carlmont received one of five coveted at-large bids. St. Francis received an at-large bid out of the West Catholic Athletic League, along with Mitty-San Jose and St. Ignatius-San Francisco. WCAL champ Bellarmine-San Jose (12-2 WCAL) and Serra-San Mateo

were automatically qualifiers from the league, the Padres (11-3 WCAL) winning a tiebreaker over the Lancers (11-3 WCAL).

Palo Alto petitioned as an at-large team, but the Vikings just missed garnering a berth. Three Vikings will play as individuals.

"It was the toughest meeting as far as at-large bids went," Menlo-Atherton coach Buff Giurlani said. "There are so many teams that are even. There aren't the dominating teams of years past. Plus teams play courses with different slopes. It's hard to compare them."

"Some of the slopes are ridiculously high," concurred St. Francis coach Dave Ferreira. "It makes for some very confusing situations."

The Scots and Bears play Tuesday, the Knights of Menlo School play Wednesday. Private Schools Athletic League champ Sacred Heart Prep-Atherton plays Wednesday. Mountain View, the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League runner-up, plays Tuesday, as do Serra and St. Francis. Last year's defending champion, Pacific Grove, qualified as an at-large team.

Local teams and individuals playing in next week's regionals (teams listed first):

Tuesday-(Menlo-Atherton) Ben Jackson, Nick Sako, Jake Hall Toy, Nick Chladek, Brian Jordan, Will Bauer; (Carlmont) Michael Smith, Scott Semmler, Daniel Semmler, Tristan Reed, Ryan Fialkowsky, Patrick Soli; (Mountain View) Adam Ichikawa, Matt Wallach, Spencer Fletcher, Mitch Goulette, Nick Kinoshita, Ryan Kelly; (Serra) Dennis Carson, Tim Byrne, Dominic DeMartini, Mike Domanico, John O'Leary, Brendan Young; (St. Francis) Mike Kasianchuk, Sean Nadir, David Rohrs, Joe Young, Brady Sullivan, Eric Runge; Pierce Marchant, Eliot Show, Adam Furlong (Palo Alto); Dash Lindsell, Tommy Economou (Burlingame); Chris MacDonald, Asad Haider (Sequoia)

Wednesday-(Sacred Heart Prep) Jeff Knox, Reid Nonenberg, Ben Dearborn, John Ceremsak, Matt King, Dalan Reploglu; (Menlo School) Will Roberts, Marc Nguyen, Connor Douglas, Garrett Cohen, M.J. Cootsona, Patrick Grimes; Davis Beckstead, Andrew Kaneshiro (Los Altos); Rocky Chan, Kyle Berka (Woodside Priory); Amol Majol, Nick Lahoz (Aragon)



E-mail John Reid at jreid@dailynewsgroup.com.