High school golf season begins Thursday in the WPIAL. Here is a breakdown of the top boys teams and players to watch this fall.<\/p>\n
Class 3A<\/p>\n
Teams<\/p>\n
Defending WPIAL champion: South Fayette (385)<\/p>\n
Defending PIAA champion: Abington Heights (286)<\/p>\n
Favorite: Peters Township returns five of six starters from a team that finished sixth in the WPIAL. The Indians have the talent to chase after their eighth WPIAL title overall and first since 2023. Camden Reyes, Jackson Baxter and Tyler Odrejko are key seniors.<\/p>\n
Others to watch: Fox Chapel was the runner-up and brings back individual champion Carson Kittsley. The Foxes must replace three seniors but usually don\u2019t have trouble restocking the lineup. \u2026 Moon has three senior starters returning and could make a title push. \u2026 North Allegheny finished third but must replace five starters. \u2026 Seniors Mike Pifer and Sam Schneck will power Pine-Richland. \u2026 West Allegheny features juniors Nico Ward and Ethan Boborski.<\/p>\n
Individuals<\/p>\n
Defending WPIAL champion: Carson Kittsley, Fox Chapel (66-68-134)<\/p>\n
Defending PIAA champion: Carson Kittsley, Fox Chapel (70-66-136)<\/p>\n
Top players: It wouldn\u2019t make much sense to pick against Kittsley, a Penn State commit who finished a combined 16-under-par in winning WPIAL and PIAA titles (8-under in both tournaments). He won back-to-back state titles. The senior can go low and has a knack for maintaining leads. \u2026 Nico Ward, a junior from West Allegheny, finished third in the WPIAL (even) and tied for sixth at states (+1). Another junior, Ty Hartman of Thomas Jefferson, took fifth in the WPIAL (+2) and tied for ninth at the PIAA tournament (+2). \u2026 Others who could return to the WPIAL finals are senior Mike Pifer of Pine-Richland, junior Bailey Donahue of Central Catholic, junior Baron Bitar of Fox Chapel and senior Joey Boff of Bethel Park.<\/p>\n
Class 2A<\/p>\n
Teams<\/p>\n
Defending WPIAL champion: Shady Side Academy (393)<\/p>\n
Defending PIAA champion: Scranton Prep (282)<\/p>\n
Favorite: With all six starters back from its WPIAL championship lineup, Shady Side Academy is the frontrunner. Seniors Alex Avi (71), Jack Begg (78) and John DiBaralomec all shot in the 70s in the finals. Juniors Jay Mohn and Dusyanth Parames also can produce low scores.<\/p>\n
Others to watch: Elizabeth Forward finished second and only has to replace one senior starter. Senior Aaron Didjunas leads the Warriors. \u2026 Keep an eye out for Avonworth, which was only three strokes behind Elizabeth Forward and has its complete starting lineup back, including junior Chase Hogan and senior Andrew Hetcko. \u2026 Beaver made the finals with a young lineup and still have junior Owen Honey and sophomore Jordan Bello. \u2026 Seniors Chris Faber and Dylan Murray are back for North Catholic.<\/p>\n
Individuals<\/p>\n
Defending WPIAL champion: *Jonah Schollaert, Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (69-75-144)<\/p>\n
Defending PIAA champion: Cole Powell, Scranton Prep (68-69-137)<\/p>\n
Top players: Greensburg Salem junior Luke Sikora made a strong postseason charge and finished second in the WPIAL and third in the PIAA. Sikora made six holes-in-one in a 12-month span over the summer. He is a slight favorite in a jam-packed field. \u2026 Riverview senior Ian Stempfer took third in the WPIAL, while other top-10 finishers included Sewickley Academy sophomore Trey Susa, Shady Side Academy senior Alex Avi, Neshannock senior Rocco Bautti, Riverview senior Rex Roberts, Chaleroi junior Levi Large and seniors Chris Farber of North Catholic, Christian Cappetta of Deer Lakes and Jamin Brock of Bishop Canevin. Bautti tied for fifth at the state tournament.<\/p>\n
*Graduated<\/p>\n
Important dates<\/p>\n
Aug. 10 \u2013 First practice date<\/p>\n
Aug. 13 \u2013 First play date<\/p>\n
Sept. 21-24 \u2013 Individual section tournaments<\/p>\n
Sept. 28-30 \u2013 WPIAL individual championship first round; Class 3A at Hannastown Golf Club; Class 2A at (TBA)<\/p>\n
Oct. 2 \u2013 Team playoff pairings announced<\/p>\n
Oct. 5-7 \u2013 WPIAL 2A individual championship final round at Sewickley Heights Country Club<\/p>\n
Oct. 6 \u2013 WPIAL 3A individual championship final round at Oakmont Country Club<\/p>\n
Oct. 8-9 \u2013 WPIAL team semifinals (sites TBA)<\/p>\n
Oct. 13 \u2013 WPIAL team championships, Cedarbrook Golf Course<\/p>\n
Oct. 19-20 \u2013 PIAA individual championships, Penn State<\/p>\n
Oct. 21 \u2013 PIAA team championships, Penn State<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"High school golf season begins Thursday in the WPIAL. Here is a breakdown of the top boys teams…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-811312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}