Mount Greylock Qualifies for State Championship
CHICOPEE, Mass. – Jacob Hillman carded a 5-over-par round of 76 Tuesday at Chicopee Country Club to place second at the Division 2 Western Massachusetts Championships.
Hillman led the county contingent at the sectional and led the Mounties into the D2 State Championship next Monday at Foxborough Country Club.
But it was a 50th-place finish by Max Easton that punched the Mounties’ ticket for states.
Mount Greylock finished the 18-hole tournament tied with Leominster for fourth place out of 16 teams. The tie-breaker? Matching the fifth of six scores earned by each team.
Easton’s 91 was three strokes better than Leominster’s No. 5 golfer, giving the Mounties the edge.
Kai Nafziger, Will Svrluga and Max Wied joined Hillman in posting scores that counted toward Mount Greylock’s team total.
Wahconah’s Sam McLaughlin and Kesler Anello, who led their team to sixth-place finish, two strokes behind the Mounties and Blue Devils, each qualified for the State Championship as individuals. McLaughlin carded an 8-over 79 to tie for fifth place; Anello tied for seventh with a 9-over 80.
High scores were the order of the day in Chicopee.
The individual medalist, Sam Pieczynski of team champion Tantasqua, finished 2-over despite starting his morning with an eagle on the par-5 second hole.
Hillman, who followed up his win at the Berkshire Classic with another county-leading performance, made the turn at 6-over but settled down to card seven pars and a birdie on the 456-yard, par 5 15th hole to finish two strokes clear of a pair of South Hadley Tigers tied for third place.
“I just blocked it out of my mind,” Hillman said of the first nine holes. “I was like, ‘It’s a new nine, new nine holes. I know I can come back from this.’ And I have before with the Berkshire Classic or a lot of other rounds.
“I actually told the people watching us, ‘You’re gonna wanna stick around for the back nine.’ And it ended up working out.”
Hillman said the pin placements were difficult and the course played a little harder than it did during the Mounties’ practice round.
But his steady play over the second half of his round allowed him to climb up the leaderboard all afternoon after teeing off on No. 1 in the 10 a.m. shotgun start.
The highlight came on No. 15, one of four par 5s at Chicopee CC.
“It was kind of a pretty simple birdie,” he said. “Just driver down the middle, hit a hybrid to the front of the green and two-putted. Pretty boring, but it works.”
Boring, perhaps, but one of fewer than 40 sub-par holes recorded by the 96 golfers in action on Tuesday.
Wahconah’s McLaughlin had two of those birdies – in a three-hole stretch on the back nine.
McLaughlin played in the second group off the first tee, and was in the top 10 all day. But he stepped to the tee on the 15th hole coming off a double bogey on 13 and a bogey on 14.
The Wahconah senior recovered in a big way with a birdie on No. 15. He gave that stroke back with a double on the par-3 16th hole but then birdied the course’s final par-5 and its longest hole, the 535-yard 17th, before finishing with a par.
“The one on 15, I just hit my drive as well as I could and then pulled an iron,” McLaughlin said. “Then my chip shot put it to like an inch, and I tapped it in.
“[On 17] also, I hit a great drive, then kind of sliced my 4 iron and then chipped it to maybe 20 feet and then made that. It was kind of like a slider, so that felt good”
It also felt good to have a chance to represent his school in the state championship tournament for a third straight year. Wahconah qualified as a team with a Western Mass title in 2023 and finished second last October in the sectional at Taconic Golf Club.
“It’s definitely going to feel nice getting there,” McLaughlin said. “Didn’t want to end the senior year at Western Mass. I wanted to continue on. So it feels good.”
Photos from this tournament to come.
Team Scores
1. Tantasqua, 39-over-par.
2. Pope Francis, 42
3. South Hadley, 52
t-4. Leominster, 57
t-4. Mount Greylock, 57 (Jacob Hillman, 76; Kai Nafziger, 85; Will Svrluga, 90; Max Wied, 90; Max Easton, 91; Odin Wojtkowski, 99).
6. Wahconah, 59 (Sam McLaughlin, 79; Kesler Anello, 80; Logan Aitken, 86; Caleb Colombari, 98; Joe Hoffman, 102; Devin Colombari, 106).
7. Quabbin, 62
8. Belchertown, 64
9. Leicester, 70
10. Gardner, 71
11. Hampshire, 72
12. Quaboag, 74
13. Easthampton, 77
t-14. St. Bernard’s, 92
t-14. Frontier, 92
16. Smith Vocational, 106
Top 20
1. Sam Piecyznski, Tantasqua, 73; 2. Jacob Hillman, Mount Greylock, 76; t-3. Ryan McGregor, South Hadley, 78; t-3. Calden Drohan, South Hadley, 78; t-5. Sam McLaughlin, Wahconah, 79; t-5. Tanner Kmetz, Pope Francis, 79; t-7. Brady Wood, Frontier, 80; t-7. Kelser Anello, Wahconah, 80; t-9. Wyatt Fay, Tantasqua, 82; t-9. William Connors, Leominster, 82; t-9 Gabe Kolodjay, Pope Francis, 82; t-9. Finnegan Leander, Quabbin, 82; t-9. Brady Klinakis, 82; t-14. Quinn Woytwoicz, Pope Francis, 83; t-14. Drew Bardsley, Tantasqua, 83; t-14. Cole Hrapchak, Pope Francis, 83; t-14. Garrett Piemonte, Pope Francis, 83; t-18. Connor Burgess, Quaboag, 84; t-18. Jackson Jalbert, Gardner, 84; t-18. Luke Heroux, Belchertown, 84; t-18. Connor Nevins, Leominster, 84.