Prep golf | Saint Stephen's continues run to state with sweep of Region 1A-6
BRADENTON -- The Saint Stephen's boys second-place finish at the district tournament on its home course was a little bit of a surprise for head coach Matt Primrose. Adam Vilinovsky, a typically reliable scorer for the Falcons, fired an 18-over-par 89 at Bradenton Country Club.
On Monday, exactly a week later, Vilinovsky and SSES returned to the club for the Class 1A-District 6 region tournament.
A year earlier, Saint Stephen's also had finished second in the district tournament before rallying to win the region title.
With a 77 from Vilinovsky, Saint Stephen's claimed its second straight region championship Monday, edging Sarasota Christian -- the District 1A-16 champion -- by six strokes in Bradenton.
"We definitely talked about it," Primrose said. "We talked about it last week. We talked about it this morning. We knew it could be done."
With a 2-over 73, Justin Wynen was the low scorer for the Falcons, who actually scored three strokes worse than at district. Wynen was the only SSES golfer Monday who played in the region tournament last season and Saint Stephen's still managed to seal a spot in the Class 1A state tournament Oct. 27-28 at Mission Inn and Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills thanks to a balanced effort.
Only one player whose score counted -- the worst of the five scores is dropped -- shot over 80 with Vilinovsky's eight-stroke turnaround allowing the Falcons to drop David Hu's 83. At the district tournament Hu shot a 76, the Falcons' second best score.
"He was the difference. If
he shoots 89 again we're out there playing off for first," coach said of Vilinovsky, a junior who is new to competitive golf. "He's always played good here. Last week was out of the ordinary. This week was closer to what I'd expect for him.
"I think it was just nerves."
Bradenton Christian, the only other Manatee County school on the boys side, shot a 335, led by Landry Miller's 76, to finish in sixth.
Falcons girls triumph
The Saint Stephen's girls team won a region championship of their own by one stroke later Monday.
Led by Vanessa Yan, who shot a 78 to split the region individual championship with Naples Neumann's Sydnney Shrader, SSES managed a 373 through fierce wins, just barely edging Fort Myers Bishop Verot's 374.
"The wind was really strong today," Yan said. "That affected the ball flight. All the scores were higher."
Out-of-Door and Cardinal Mooney finished with scores of 430 and 452, respectively, finishing fourth and fifth in the district. Only the top two teams advance to next week's state tournament in Howey-in-the-Hills.
Saint Stephen's region title comes a week after the Falcons and Yan unanimous claimed the District 1A-16 titles in Bradenton. Yan shot a 71 that day at BCC, matching the top boys score, and is executing her simple strategy the best she has all season.
She doesn't worry too much about setting up the rare eagle opportunities or even birdies. Yan aims for greens-in-regulation and once she's on the green she goes for a two putt. It leads to a lot of pars and an even round in the district title before fighting to a 78 at region.
When the girls finished and were presented their trophy a shade before 7 p.m. the chatter was about the SSES sweep. Yan smiled and said it was "definitely" a good day for Saint Stephen's.
"The most important thing," she said, "is that our team won."
This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 12:23 AM with the headline "Prep golf | Saint Stephen's continues run to state with sweep of Region 1A-6 ."