Chase Yakaitis was having a pretty good round at Tuesday\u2019s Colonial League Golf Championships, but the Salisbury player had no idea where he stood in the race for the gold medal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to spoil what was going on in my head,\u201d Yakaitis said. \u201cI just wanted to play as good as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yakaitis was at or near the top of the scoreboard for much of the round and, despite a pair of bogeys on the last four holes, held off returning champion Anthony Albano of Saucon Valley by a shot after a round of 2-over-par 73 on a breezy day at Bethlehem Golf Club.<\/p>\n
Albano played the back nine in 1-under for an 18-hole score of 74. Bangor\u2019s Landon Romanczuk (75), last year\u2019s runner-up, and Beau Thomas (76); plus Northwestern Lehigh\u2019s Cole Dynda (77) and Southern Lehigh\u2019s Connor Sarnoski (77) rounded out the top five, who secured automatic berths to the District 11 tournament in two weeks.<\/p>\n
Lexi Miller repeated as the girls champion with a 3-over 74 that included birdies on Nos. 5 and 18. Moravian Academy\u2019s Katherine Anthony, who was third a year ago as a freshman, was second with an 82.<\/p>\n
Southern Lehigh (385) won the team title by 29 shots over Moravian Academy (414). Notre Dame-Green Pond (432) and Northwestern Lehigh (458) followed. Coach Matt Greenawald\u2019s Spartans also won the regular-season title with a 12-0 record. They have won 10 league titles in Greenawald\u2019s 26 seasons.<\/p>\n
The 2025 Lehigh Valley Golf Hall of Fame inductee is 314-75 in his career, including 151-19 the last 13 years.<\/p>\n
Yakaitis hit nine of 18 greens and had a strong short game with only a pair of three-putts on two holes he bogeyed (4 and 15). He also bogeyed No. 18, when he couldn\u2019t get up and down from the front bunker.<\/p>\n
But the Falcon otherwise played stellar to capture the title.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hit the greens in good position to two putt,\u201d Yakaitis said. \u201cThat put me a good position to play well today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yakaitis and Thomas were tied before Yakaitis led for the entire back nine after string of eight consecutive pars on the heels of his lone birdie on the par-5 sixth.<\/p>\n
The left-hander likes the feel of the new bag of equipment the last two weeks. He thinks he can continue to play well in the postseason as he becomes more comfortable with clubs.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a lot of time to adjust,\u201d Yakaitis admitted. \u201cJust planning for the future, it\u2019s just better to get them now. I think I can make a run. I think there\u2019s definitely a chance after this performance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miller\u2019s ability to keep the ball in play in front of her made a difference in her ability to score. In addition to the two birdies, she stayed away from the big numbers, making bogey at Nos. 7,8, 12, 13 and 15.<\/p>\n
The returning state medalist with college interest at Villanova, Lehigh and New York University, hit 13 of 18 greens to keep the stress low.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019m more consistent this year and don\u2019t get too hard on myself as much as I did last year,\u201d Miller said. \u201cI hit some better shots than last year so that helps.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, I hit the ball pretty straight where I wanted to. I was able to figure out the wind, so that was good. My putting was pretty good. I only had one three-putt, so that helped me out today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The District 11 qualifier is Tuesday, Sept. 29, at Shawnee on the Delaware. The District 11 Golf Championships are Tuesday, Oct. 6, at Steel Club in Hellertown.<\/p>\n
Senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com<\/p>\n
Colonial League Golf Championships<\/p>\n
Tuesday at Bethlehem Golf Club; par 71<\/p>\n
BOYS<\/p>\n
1. Chase Yakaitis, Salisbury; 73<\/p>\n
2. Anthony Albano, Saucon Valley; 74<\/p>\n
3. Landon Romanczuk, Bangor; 75<\/p>\n
4. Beau Thomas, Bangor; 76<\/p>\n
5. Cole Dynda, Northwestern Lehigh; 77<\/p>\n
5. Connor Sarnoski, Southern Lehigh; 77<\/p>\n
7. Chase Kimble, Southern Lehigh; 78<\/p>\n
7. Cooper Aspen, Southern Lehigh; 78<\/p>\n
7. Hayden Bartie, Southern Lehigh; 78<\/p>\n
10. Teddy Perrotta, Moravian Academy; 79<\/p>\n
11. Leonard Anthony, Moravian Academy; 80<\/p>\n
12. Colin Best, Notre Dame-GP; 81<\/p>\n
13. Colin Davis, Southern Lehigh; 82<\/p>\n
13. Connor Aspen, Southern Lehigh; 82<\/p>\n
13. Joey Solt, Palmerton; 82<\/p>\n
16. Kolby Szarawarski, Southern Lehigh; 83<\/p>\n
17. Greyson Spahija, Southern Lehigh; 84<\/p>\n
17. Jacob Thode, Southern Lehigh; 84<\/p>\n
19. Andrew Swercheck, Notre Dame-GP; 85<\/p>\n
19. Brady Schab, Bangor; 85<\/p>\n
19. Mikey D\u2019Amico, Lehighton; 85<\/p>\n
19. Robert Zolfaghari, Southern Lehigh; 85<\/p>\n
23. Aiden Vanicky, Notre Dame-GP; 86<\/p>\n
23. Chase Winsor, Palisades; 86<\/p>\n
23. Michael Stein, Pen Argyl; 86<\/p>\n
23. Preston Edwards, Moravian Academy; 86<\/p>\n
GIRLS<\/p>\n
1. Lexi Miller, Southern Lehigh; 74<\/p>\n
2. Katherine Anthony, Moravian Academy; 82<\/p>\n
3. Sophia Baki, Moravian Academy; 89<\/p>\n
4. Caliegh Scholtes, Wilson; 96<\/p>\n
5. Mary Jane O\u2019Brien, Palmerton; 100<\/p>\n
6. Kathryn Carolyn, Moravian Academy; 108<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chase Yakaitis was having a pretty good round at Tuesday\u2019s Colonial League Golf Championships, but the Salisbury player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,305,726,432],"class_list":["post-291837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-high-school-sports","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}