Despite playing in consistent rain throughout the day, Daniel Boone’s Chase Yenser shined once again at Blackwood Golf Course as the junior shot a 2-over 107 over 27 holes on Wednesday to claim his second straight BCIAA boys individual golf title.
Yenser defeated Gov. Mifflin senior JP Radwanski by one stroke and held a four-shot lead heading into the final hole. Radwasnki made par on the 414-yard, par-4 18th to close out his day and Yenser finished with a triple bogey to maintain his lead and earn the victory.
Also the reigning District 3 Class 3A individual champion, Yenser finished the first 18 holes leading the field with a 2-under 68, while Radwasnki was the closest to catching Yenser after finishing the opening 18 holes with a 1-over 71.
“Honestly I just wanted to hit fairways, hit greens and two-putt; that’s all I was trying to do,” Yenser said. “I wasn’t trying to go at pins and make birdies. I was perfectly content with pars, or bogeys at worse (over the final nine holes). Obviously, the last little triple (bogey) was not ideal, but it worked out.”
Yenser began his day with an impressive front nine during which he made three birdies and one bogey for a 2-under 33 going out. He made birdie on the 383-yard, par-4 first hole, the 404-yard, par-4 fourth and the 147-yard, par-3 eighth before making bogey on No. 9.
Having noted that the biggest improvement in his game since his sophomore year lies in his heightened composure, Yenser, the reigning Berks Player of the Year, said that the solid start gave him the confidence to carry on the rest of his round with strength and poise.
“I would say probably on my shoulders,” Yenser said regarding his biggest improvement. “I’d say my mentality was actually really good today, besides, obviously the last hole. I’ve worked really hard on that, played a lot of tournaments throughout the summer, so just getting that experience really helped.
“That (mentality) helps so much when you’re going to the back nine four or five up. You can kind of take a deep breath and kind of relax from there on out so that was awesome.”
However, the final hole proved to be anything but relaxing for Yenser, who missed the fairway far to the right on his drive. Yenser’s approach shot then found the bunker beneath the green and his chip out of the sand went over the green and into the rough beyond the far side fringe.
From there, Yenser chipped onto the green and completed a triple bogey with a three-putt that he initially thought would put him in jeopardy of playing in a playoff for first place.
“It (my heart rate) has been up a pretty decent amount throughout the whole round,” Yenser said. “Throughout the whole round I didn’t feel like I was gonna throw up one time, which is a positive, but on that hole, I cannot say the same. You know, that was bad.
“I thought I was going to have to go into a playoff to be honest.
“Honestly, I just didn’t want my teammates down. They were kind of counting on me and I was counting on myself. And my parents, I didn’t want to let them down. That was really the biggest thing. I just didn’t want to let them down.”
Berks Catholic junior Breaden Stringer earned third place with a 4-over 109, Gov. Mifflin senior Nathan Radwanski finished fourth with a 6-over 111, Tulpehocken senior Zach Neuin placed fifth with a 7-over 112 and Tulpehocken sophomore Zach Crampton earned sixth after defeating Fleetwood sophomore Cameron Peffel and Wilson freshman Luke Fallon in a playoff and finishing with an 8-over 113.
The 2024 BCIAA individual golf medalists. From left, Tulpehocken’s Zach Crampton, Tulpehocken’s Zach Neuin, Daniel Boone’s Chase Yenser, Berks Catholic’s Braeden Stringer, Gov. Mifflin’s Nathan Radwanski and Gov. Mifflin’s JP Radwanski. (ANDREW HELLER – READING EAGLE)
The strong play of JP and Nathan Radwasnki helped propel the Mustangs to their first team title since 2017. Gov. Mifflin won the overall team championship with a combined score of 31-over. The Mustangs finished tied with the Trojans but a fifth score tiebreaker went Gov. Mifflin’s way as Jacob Troy shot a 17-over 87 through 18 holes, while Tulpehocken’s fifth scorer, Evan Beitler, shot a 26-over 96.
Overall for Gov. Mifflin, Gavin Bereschak had a 12-over 82, Brady Morris had a 13-over 83 and Owen Miller shot an 18-over 88 as the team’s sixth man. The Mustangs qualified for the District 3 Class 3A tournament with the win and Tulpehocken qualified for the Class 2A tournament as the high AA team.
The Gov. Mifflin golf team from left. Brady Morris, Owen Miller, JP Radwanski, Nathan Radwanski, Gavin Bereschak, Jacob Troy and coach Michael Kurtz. (ANDREW HELLER – READING EAGLE)
“This year was the most competitive year of my 10 years coaching golf,” Gov. Mifflin coach Michael Kurtz said. “There were five teams today that could have won it, so I would have thought we probably would be in the conversation, but for anyone to think they’re going to be the one of those five teams would be insane.
“We’re just blessed and fortunate enough to be that team today. But again, all credit to teams Tulpehocken, Daniel Boone, Wilson and Twin Valley. Those teams work just as hard as we did.”
In addition to the medalists and the members of the Mustangs as well as Tulpehocken, players who shot a 132 or better in Class 2A advanced to the district tournament, while players from Class 3A who shot a 120 or better also advanced to districts.
Rounding out the qualifiers from District 3 Class 3A are: Daniel Boone’s Chase Cleaver (14 over 119), Twin Valley’s Kooper Zdimal (10 over 115), Twin Valley’s Nevan Graham (9 over 114), Wilson’s Andrew Borneman (8 over 114), Wilson’s Luke Fallon (8 over 113) and Peffel from Fleetwood (8 over 113)
Rounding out the qualifiers from District 3 Class 2A are: Kutztown’s Andrew Gilbert (27 over 132), Berks Catholic’s Chase Voelker (25 over 130) and Wyomissing’s Birkley Zeigler (22 over 127).
