BLACKSBURG — Despite shooting under 300 as a team for the first time all year, Western Albemarle faced a double-digit deficit coming into the final day against defending Group AA champion Jamestown — making for an uphill road entering the last round of the 2010 tournament.
The last time the Warriors won a state title in 2004, they were in the very same position, down 11 strokes. After coach Darren Maynard informed his team of this, Western managed to improve on its day one showing by two shots, shooting the second best score of the day as a team at 293. While the team wasn’t able to best Jamestown who followed up on a day one 284 with a 291, the Warriors managed to edge another nemesis, Blacksburg, the 2007 and 2008 champion, to take second place by six shots.
“I was happy with our score — 293 is a really low score to shoot in a state tournament,” Maynard said. “It also was our best score of the year so I was really pleased with that.”
The Bruins topped Western two years ago at Western’s home course at Old Trail, and this year the Warriors were able to return the favor by edging them on their home course at Blacksburg County Club.
Leading the way for Western was the Jefferson District co-player of the year, Alex O’Dell. After shooting a 3-under 69 in his first go-around the course, O’Dell shot a pair of 34’s on the front and back nine to come in at 4-under 68 to to earn a third place individual finish at 7-under 137. The Western junior played an unblemished final round by shooting four birdies and no bogeys, picking up shots on holes number 2, 7, 12 and 13.
“Today I just took advantage of the holes that I knew I could tag,” O’Dell said. “There were a few birdie putts that I wish I could have had, but overall I felt like it was a pretty solid day.
Like many of his teammates, O’Dell was able to capitalize on the relatively wide open course.
“It’s a fairly simple course,” O’Dell said. “Even if you miss the fairway you get a pretty good lie and if you hit the greens, you’re going to be in pretty good shape unless you’re really struggling to putt. My putter was working today and yesterday.”
With his first round showing,O’Dell played with the leaders in the last group Tuesday, which meant golfing with Nick Tremps of Jamestown and Jake Mondy of Blacksburg who shot blazing first rounds of 9-under 63, both just one stroke off former William Monroe golfer and two-time individual champ Mikey Moyers’ state record round of 62. Mondy edged Tremps by one shot to take first place, but O’Dell outshot both golfers in round two by four and three strokes respectively.
“I was just so happy with the way Alex played with the two big guns that shot those 63’s yesterday,” Maynard said. “All his sides were under par and that’s just excellent golf. He’s so consistent.”
Coming into the tournament, Western was banking on its depth and getting more than just four low scores from the same four golfers. They got just that over the two days as O’Dell, Scott Wakely, Landon Weis and Brett Engle all scored on day one, and on day two Kent Miller snuck in to post the team’s second best score behind O’Dell with his round of 1-over 73 with Wakely, Weis and Engle all scoring 4-over 76’s.
“Kent Miller really came up big for us today,” Maynard said. “I think his score was huge for us getting to second place.”
Getting that unexpected score was exactly how Western managed a second place finish in 2008 as both O’Dell and Weis were able to contribute as freshmen.
And although those two and Engle and Miller all return in 2011, the Warriors will be without seniors Wakely and Ethan Lohr. The last time that the Warriors didn’t qualify for the Group AA tournament, Wakely and Lohr were in eighth grade.
“This is just a fun buch of guys,” Lohr added. “It was a lot of fun playing here and just a lot fun to be around the team.”
Four Jefferson District golfers qualified as individuals for the state tournament. Monticello’s 1-2 punch of Evan Childress and Michael Comer shot respective two-day scores of 7-over 151 and 16-over 160. Both Mustangs had their moments, but did so on opposing days. Childress struggled a bit in the first round with an 8-over 80 but recovered by following up with a round under par on day two at 1-under 71. Comer was at 6-over 78 after the first day, but couldn’t replicate or improve on that score as he finished day two with a 10-over 82 to close out the tournament.
William Monroe’s Austin Batten shot two 13-over 85’s on successive days. Fluvanna County Alex Preganz, who came through in the clutch to win a playoff in the Region II tournament to earn a trip to Blacksburg, shot back-to-back 16-over 88’s to wrap up his freshman year on the golf course.
