UPDATED
Schalick, Weber post early, wait out the field, win team title and medalist in South Jersey Group I golf championship; Woodstown, Schermerhorn T-2
| SOUTH JERSEY GROUP I | At Cream Ridge GC |
| TEAM SCORES | INDIVIDUAL TOP 10 |
| Schalick 349 | Jaxon Weber, Schalick 82 |
| Lower Cape May 358 | Alex Sekela, Lower Cape May 83 |
| Woodstown 358 | Jacob Schermerhorn, Woodstown 83 |
| Audubon 361 | Lance Creighton, Schalick 85 |
| Cape May Tech 369 | Justin Walker, Cape May Tech 86 |
| Pitman 376 | Eric Coombs, Lower Cape May 88 |
| Gateway 397 | Joey Zubert, Pitman 88 |
| Wildwood 497 | Kyle Brainard, Woodstown 88 |
| Rocco Monteferrante, Audubon 88 | |
| Chase Carr, Audubon 89 | |
| Ryan Johnson, Schalick 89 |
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
CREAM RIDGE – The hardest part was the waiting.
Jaxon Weber and the Schalick golf team did everything they thought they could in the morning wave of the South Jersey Group I Golf Championships to have a chance Tuesday, then had to wait for the rest of the field to finish to discover if it was good enough.
It was historically good enough.
Weber and the Cougars rose up the leaderboard steadily throughout the afternoon as several teams had trouble on Cream Ridge GC’s back nine and eventually claimed titles. The team came from as many as 12 shots back with six holes to play to win their first sectional title in more than 20 years by nine shots and Weber’s 10-over-par 82 won medalist honors by a stroke.
The Cougars went out early, posted a 349 team score and then waited …. and waited … and waited for nearly three hours as the rest of the field finished.
Some teams checked out. The Cougars hung around, got something to eat, chipped and putted and talked to the coaches about how nervous they were, all the time checking the scoring app on their phones for updates.
Even the searching created some anxious moments as there was a glitch in one of the contender’s groups and everyone had to wait for the physical scorecards to determine those results.
“It was terribly nerve-wracking,” Weber said. “I saw myself at the top and I was just, ‘Please, Lord, let me win and please, Lord, look down on us and help us with this.’ At the end He came through and He let us win and I’m super grateful.”
“It was really rough,” Cougars coach Sean Collins said. “It seemed like there were a lot of little twists. We were all checking our phones every minute, letting each other know what was happening as if the other person didn’t check their phone, too. I’ve been a part of other athletic events before and that was a very unique experience.”
The Cougars shot 349 as a team. In addition to Weber’s 41-41—82, they counted Lance Creighton’s 40-45—85 (fourth place), Ryan Johnson’s 45-44–89 (T-10) and Seth Fisher’s 45-48–93. Elijah Johnson shot 51-45–96.
Weber, a sophomore, got off to a rough start, going triple-double (8-5) right out of the box. He played the rest of the side even par with birdies at 5 and 6. He also was a little clunky coming home, playing the last four holes in 5-over with two double bogeys, and was two off the lead when he posted, but all the other contenders fell off on the back nine to bring him to the top.
“I came out the first two holes and didn’t really shoot the best and thought to myself I’ve got to pick it up from here,” Weber said. “I realized I couldn’t get out of my head because it was only two holes. I knew I had a lot of golf to play.
“I think today it was really keeping my cool after those first two holes. When I was a freshman I probably would’ve blown up and gotten angry at myself and probably would have taken myself out of the whole match. I feel like I’ve matured a lot over the past year and realized what golf is really about. It’s not about how you start, it’s about how you finish.”
And the Cougars finished on top when it counted.
Woodstown finished tied for second with Lower Cape May (358). They were three shots better than fourth-place Audubon.
Wolverines senior Jacob Schermerhorn shared second individually with LCM’s Alex Sekela at 83. The Wolverines also counted long-hitting first-year player Kyle Brainard’s 48-40—88 (T-6), Jeffrey Covely’s 49-43–92 and Joe Olbrich’s 46-49–95. Max Webb shot 115.
Among the top three teams, Woodstown’s four counters played the back nine the best (173) and had a 12-shot differential between the front (185) and back (173).
“I was happy, I was definitely content,” coach Kieran Keyser said. “The goal is always to do a little bit better than the previous year, which we did, and that made it that much sweeter. It was a good day. I was happy with our guys and I’m looking forward to the last two weeks of the season to try to finish strong.”
And that would be the Salem/Cumberland County Championship and the Tri-County Championship, two events that will be played under some non-traditional tournament formats.
Riverview Sports News 