6 area boys golfers qualify for District 3 Tournament

Franklin County sent 16 competitors to the Mid Penn Conference boys golf championships on Monday at Dauphin Highlands Golf Club and six of them finished in the top 24, qualifying for the District 3 Tournament.

Chambersburg got a pair of sophomores through - Karsen Rush shot a 1-over par 73 to place third and Grayson Hopple shot 82 to make it on the number, in a three-way tie for 22nd.

For Greencastle-Antrim, two seniors advanced - John Williams shot 78 to tie for 10th, and Chad Harbaugh tied for 20th with an 81. In addition, James Buchanan's Jacob Suder shot 79 (tied for 13th) and Waynesboro's Paul Steiger fired a 77 to tie for sixth.

Timmy Cooper of Central Dauphin crushed it with a 7-under par round of 65 to beat Cumberland Valley's Campbell Wolf (70) for the individual title. The Rams also captured the MPC team title. Chambersburg tied for fourth place with State College with a score of 318, and Shippensburg tied for ninth with 360.

Rush was tied with Cooper at 3-under through eight holes, but had double bogeys on No. 9 and No. 5.

"I hit a couple of bad shots that cost me, and I couldn't get enough putts to drop," Rush said.

Trojan coach Mark Yost said, "Karsen was playing with the two guys that finished under par, and he may have been pushing to try to catch them. Grayson shot a nice round to qualify."

Mary Kate Norcross played for the Trojans in the team event and shot 75. The Mid Penn girls tournament is Wednesday at Armitage.

Yost said, "That was her career-low round, so that should be a great confidence boost."

Suder will be appearing in districts for the fourth time. He had a pair of birdies on the front nine, but a triple on No. 9 hurt his score.

JB coach Mark Wise said, "He told me he could have shot a few strokes lower, but just couldn't hit his approach shots close enough. We've got two weeks to fine tune his game."

Steiger had a fabulous start to his round - he birdied No. 1 and eagled No. 2, a short par with a blind second shot.

"He hit a good drive and had about a 25-yard pitch shot," Indian coach Ryan Henderson said. "It must have hit the slope and took the break, but when they got up to the green they couldn't see it. Somebody said to check the hole, and that's where it was. Pretty cool."

Sunday, Chambersburg played in the Hershey Invitational at Hershey Country Club's East Course and finished fifth as a team. Rush and Luke Ocker each shot 75 to tie fourth fourth, Norcross had 83 and Hopple 86.

Mid Penn Boys Tournament
1.Timmy Cooper (Central Dauphin) 75, 2.Campbell Wolf (Cumb. Valley) 70, 3.Karsen Rush (Chambersburg)73, 4.Jason Koshinski (Mechanicsburg) 75, 5.Grady Clarke (CV) 76, 6.(tie) Paul Steiger (Waynesboro), Austin Schreffler (Northern York), Noah Lee (CV), Josh Pfaff (B.McDevitt) 77, 10.(tie) John Williams (Greencastle-Antrim), Matt Kephart (Lower Dauphin), Richie Klass (CD) 78, 13.(tie) Jacob Suder (James Buchanan), Zack Fails (LD), Jake Aaron (CD), Brendan Shay (Mech) 79, 17.(tie) Nick Tomasko (Mech), Trent Golden (CV), Alec Kessler (Big Spring) 80, 20.(tie) Chad Harbaugh (G-A), Kantor Dalton (LD) 81, 22.(tie) Grayson Hopple (Chbg), Zach Wagner (CV), Kobie Swartz (LD) 82.
Other Chambersburg golfers: T27.Luke Ocker 85, T30.Spencer Rajtik 86
Other Greencastle golfers: T34.Jacob DeCarli 87
Shippensburg golfers: T36.Jim Smith 88, T36.Tanner Greenawalt 88, T56.Dillon Labonte 92, T56.Adam Maraing 92
Other James Buchanan golfers: T64.Caleb Reath 97
Other Waynesboro golfers: T40.Sam Franki 89, T56.Robert Sirk 92