Meadville’s Luke Ferry and Patrick Mahoney and Saegertown’s Mason Gjovik will compete in the PIAA Individual Golf Championships today and tomorrow at Penn State’s Blue and White courses.
The Class 3A tournament will play on the White Course while the Class 2A golfers will play the Blue Course. Similar to the district tournament, the state tournament is a two-day competition, but there is no cut line at states. Each golfer will qualify for the second day of action.
All three local golfers are freshman and are three of the nine golfers competing in either Class 2A or 3A that’s a ninth-grader.
“Kudos to Mike Ferry and the Meadville Country Club. Mason is a junior member and Luke and Patrick play there all the time,” Saegertown head coach Brian Hanley said. “It’s good to have so many excellent golfers in our backyard.”
Ferry and Mahoney will compete in the Class 3A tournament. Ferry won the District 10 competition at The Country Club of Meadville with a two-day total of 151. Mahoney was the runner-up with a 156.
Gjovik will represent Saegertown in the Class 2A tournament. Gjovik finished tied for second at the D-10 competition with a 144.
“Mason wants to finish in the top 10. He has the tools to do it,” Hanley said. “He’s great off the tee, good with his irons and is great around the green with his chipping.”
Gjovik is the first freshman in Saegertown history to make the state tournament. It’s an encouraging sign that the future is bright for Hanley and the Panthers’ golf program.
“Mason’s an athletic kid, a good basketball player too,” Hanley said. “We have a lot of 7th and 8th graders coming up and I think Mason has a part in that with them showing so much interest.
“Anything can happen down there, this is just icing on the cake. There is not cut so if you don’t play great on the first day you still go back. At districts, it is difficult to get out in 2A. With Prep, Corry and Hickory coming down there were a lot of really good scores this year.”
On Wednesday, the Saegertown boys will compete in the PIAA Class 2A Team Championship. The Panthers were the D-10 runners-up, but their score was good enough for one of the two at-large bids.
Hanley was ecstatic to hear the news, which was released on Thursday.
“I’m really happy for these guys. They’ve worked really hard all summer to get there and they deserve it,” Hanley said. “We’ve been practicing since districts to stay ready just in case we had the opportunity to play down there.”
Saegertown had a team-score of 318 at the District 10 tournament, second to Cathedral Prep’s 311. Gjovik’s 70 led the Panthers. Tyler Cherpak, also a freshman, carded an 80. Ryder Bailey (83), Everett Gardner (86) and Mason Allio (88) also competed for the Panthers and will make the trip to State College.
