It's the third Bulldog sweep in event history
Led by Angelina Pacheco's three-under 69, the Bulldogs shot a team score of 334 to make it 10 girls teams titles in a row. (Photo/Taylor McFee)
When super sophomore Ayden Febres left a crack in the door with a bogey on 18, St. Cloud teammate Arnold Pouncy took advantage – forcing a tie before beating his friend on the third hole of sudden death to capture his first Orange Belt Conference individual golf championship on Wednesday afternoon.
Both Pouncy and Febres finished by shooting stellar five-under 67s to force a playoff for the OBC crown. The two parred the first two holes, before Pouncy stiffed his approach on the next hole to within six feet. After a Febres miss, Pouncy tapped in for a birdie,
“He’s (Febres) is my best friend and an absolute dog of a competitor so I knew it was not going to be easy today,” Pouncy said. “Without question, the key today was my putter. It seems like I made everything I was looking at today.”
Pouncy made six birdies and a lone bogey Wednesday, while Febres had four birdies, an eagle and just one bogey.
The effort of the twosome, combined with a two-under 70 from Nick Lehto and sophomore Brandon Smart’s eight-over 80 was enough to give the Bulldogs a team-winning total of four-under par 284 – just two shots off the OBC record established by the 2025 St. Cloud team.
It was also St. Cloud third straight boys title and seventh in the last eight years.
“This was the first day we had our entire team together and they played really well,” St. Cloud coach Alejandro Sanchez said. “Every member of this team has a chance to shoot under par on any given day and we will need that type of consistency to reach our goals.”
Second place Harmony also had a terrific day on the course. The Longhorns led the field with five different golfers shooting in the 70s to post a 297 – 15 shots better than their second-place finish a year ago.
Connor Holt (71) led the way for the Longhorns, and Mason Collier (74), Carter Wright (75), and Wesley Durrance (77) joined him on the OBC All-Conference team.
“Really proud of how hard our guys have worked the past couple of years to get to this point and that was on full display today,” Harmony Coach Steve Durrance said. “We had five guys in the 70s today and on any given day, any one of them could be the best. Our goal this year was to advance past the district round and we have the depth to do that, if we play our best in the coming weeks.”
The Girls tournament was held on Monday and it was a two-team race both figuratively and literally as only two of the nine public schools fielded team scores.
Led by Angelina Pacheco's three-under 69, the Bulldogs shot a team score of 334 to easily outdistance Harmony (442) for the team title. Pacheco was extremely consistent on her round – finishing with four birdies, 13 pars and just one bogey. Abigail Murphy (72) and Maddie Burda (78) joined Pacheco on the All-OBC team; Alexis Bissonette (93) was the top finisher for Harmony.
It was the third time that the Bulldogs swept both the boys and girls OBC team championships. District play begins next week.
