Central golfers Lee, Parrini continue perfect postseason
The beat goes on for the Central York golf team. Joe Parrini and Julianne Lee both won gold in the District 3 Class 3A individual tournament at Briarwood Golf Club Saturday.
It’s the second such victory in each of the players’ career, as Lee won the girls' tournament last season and Parrini won the Class 2A tournament as a freshman with York Catholic. The two also won the YAIAA individual championships and led the Panthers to YAIAA and District 3 team titles.
Parrini and Lee will be joined by teammates Matt Bricker and Carson Bacha at the PIAA East Individual Regionals at Golden Oaks Golf Club in Fleetwood on Oct. 17.
While the quartet of Panthers is used to winning in 2016, no victory is a simple one. Two hours into the match the skies opened up over Briarwood and there was no telling how the rain would affect the tournament’s participants.
“Not much wind yesterday, not much wind today," said Bricker, who shot 2-over for the tournament to place fifth. "It was a little bit wetter today so the ball didn’t go as far, but the conditions were still pretty easy."
Parrini also noted that the gloomy conditions were not enough to throw him off of his game.
For the Panthers’ leader, it was just another seemingly-relaxed day on the course. Despite holding just a 1-stroke lead going into the final three holes, Parrini remained calm and consistent on the way to a final-round 66. He finished with a two-round 136 to earn the victory at 8-under par.
Chambersburg's Karsen Rush finished the tournament two strokes back at 6-under. Manheim Township's Trey Kuntz finished at 4-under.
Tulpehocken's Chase Miller won the Class 2A boys' title with a 3-over final score.
“My driving has been exceptionally, exceptionally great,” Parrini said of his biggest in-season improvement. “Earlier in the season I was hitting it OK, but really this postseason I’ve stepped it up and I’ve been hitting a lot of fairways, putting myself in a good position to go well.”
For Lee, it was the opposite skill set that helped her to victory.
“I’ve been playing really well this year, I’ve improved a lot," she said. "My putting is a lot better than last year and my second shots, my approach shots, have been really good.”
Lee needed her short game to be just that on Saturday. The dampened course made for a handful of difficult lies, which put many golfers in less-than-pleasing situations.
Penn Manor’s Allison Appleton eagled the 12th hole, reducing Lee’s 6-stroke lead to 4 strokes. For the first time in the tournament the reigning champ began to feel the pressure from her competition, but she kept her composure and finished the two-day event with a 1-over par 141 for gold.
Appleton would finish 6 strokes behind Lee for second place, and in Class 2A Lauren Bird finished at 8-over to win by three strokes over Lancaster Mennonite's Grace Stillman.
For York-Adams girls, Susquehannock’s Kendel Abrams will advance to the regional round after finishing the tournament at 19-over.
Other YAIAA golfers advancing to the regional round for the boys are Dallastown's Blake Sebring and Evan Greenplate and Spring Grove's Luke Hoffnagle. Advancing and representing Class 2A will be York Catholic's Andrew Forjan, who was tied for the lead after the first round and placed sixth, and Littlestown's Devin Peart.