The Celebration boys golf team made it interesting on Tuesday, but could not prevent St. Cloud from completing a dominating sweep of the Orange Belt Conference golf championships Monday and Tuesday at Royal St. Cloud Golf Club.
In Tuesday’s boys championship, four Bulldogs shot in the 70s to outduel Celebration 302-312, and claim their fourth consecutive OBC team title. Monday, the Lady Bulldogs (318) easily got by Harmony (359) and Celebration (368) to claim their sixth straight title.
“Overall I could not be happier with the performance of both teams,” St. Cloud Coach Jim Endicott said. “Our boys sort of struggled a little early in their rounds, but they rallied and fought back nicely. Since both our teams will be playing on our home course in districts and regionals, we look forward to having an opportunity to advance both teams.”
St. Cloud came away with both individual medalists: standout freshman Karolyna Adams shot a four-over 76 to capture the girls’ championship; while senior Gunnar Green posted even-par 72 to earn boys’medalist honors.
The girls’ title came down to a battle between Adams and teammate Cayden Challacombe. Adams dropped a 15-foot putt for her only birdie of the day to post her 76. Finishing two groups later, Challacombe had an 18-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole to tie Adams but saw her effort fall short. Adams becomes the third girl golfer ever and first since Morgan Beaulieu in 2018 to win the OBC as a freshman. She had pars on eight of her first nine holes and, called her round, “Relatively stress-free.”
“I had a lot of fun out there, relaxed and just sort of played my game,” she said.
In addition to Adams and Challacombe, who finished 14 strokes better than last year’s seventh place finish (91), the Lady Bulldogs placed two other golfers on the All-OBC team as senior Jenna Barnett (80) tied for third and junior Tess Shieve (85) finished in seventh.
Also earning spots on the All-OBC team was the Harmony duo of Jordan Pidgeon (T3-80) and Aryana Persaud (8th-87); as well as Celebration’s Natalie Quiones (T-3-80) and Adriana Leon (6th-83). A sophomore, Leon finished second at last year’s championship.
Green called his round “weird,” after making just six pars on his round to go with six birdies and six bogeys.
“I rolled in a good putt for a birdie on 1 and was feeling pretty good,” Green said. “But then I got a couple wet, dicey lies and just missed some greens. It was a pretty strange round, on one hand it was a round where I could have shot really low, but it was also one where had to make some shots down the stretch and felt really fortunate to finish with a 72.”
The Bulldogs had all four counting scores at 79 or better. Joining Green and Owen on the All-OBC team where teammates Espn Pool (5th-77) and Ethan Parrish (7th-79).
Celebration, which finished runner-up to St. Cloud last year with a team score of 321, improved that total by nine shots. Three Storm golfers earned All-Conference. Joining Aguilera on the podium was Jermiah Bianchi (4th-76) and Ethan Badillo (8th-80). The fourth counting score from the Storm came from Braiden Plasted, who shot a respectable 82. Also earning all-conference honors was Gateway’s William Giger, who tied for fifth with a 77.
“Overall, I thought we played pretty well today,” Storm coach Greg Raklovits said. “On any given day, any one of our top four guys has a chance to shoot close to par. We have a deep team and look forward to competing for a district title next week in Lakeland.”
District championships will be held next week with the boys playing on Monday and the girls playing on Tuesday. St. Cloud, Harmony, and Tohopekaliga will compete in the Class 3A, Region 2, District 6 tournament at Royal St. Cloud. Celebration’s teams will be at the Class 3A, Region 2, District 7 tournaments at the Club at Eaglebrook in Lakeland. The top three teams advance to regional competition.
Both St. Cloud teams and the Celebration boys team will be favored to advance to regionals, but both coaches said they are setting their heights much higher.
“We have the advantage of playing both districts and regionals on our home course,” Endicott said. “We will set our sights on winning districts and then take it from there.”
Raklovics added that, “Winning districts is absolutely our goal. We have four talented guys that are really super close in ability and you need to have that to have a chance in the post-season.”
