The District 6 Eastern Sectional Qualifier was held at Sinking Valley Country Club on a beautiful sunny day, perfect for golf.
A total of 72 players were present to play for the top 20 individual spots to advance. In all, 19 schools were represented, with 15 fielding teams to also try to advance. Three teams were to advance in the team competition.
Leading the way in the team competition was Hollidaysburg, followed by State college and Altoona, Tyrone finished fourth, but will not advance as a team.
In the individual category Tyrone will advance two players, freshman standout Jimmy Ferguson who carded a score of 76 which finished him in the fifth position and Ryan Ruscio, who shot an 84 which finished him in the 16th position. Ryan advanced last year as well.
The course was set up very fair, with a steady breeze and very fast greens.
“You had to stay in the moment, if you lost focus, the course would make you pay,” said Tyrone golf Coach Greg Ferguson. “I thought Jimmy did a phenomenal job today, his 76 today was special, because he had to tee it up with Shawn Brannen, the #1 player in the state the past two years, and ranked 16th in the nation as a junior golfer. I wasn\’t sure how he would handle that, but he did a great job. If he can shoot 76 in this pairing, with virtually no experience in high school golf, I\’m impressed. All I can say is keep it up. I also feel Ryan Ruscio did a fine job by making it to the districts for the second straight year. Ryan was struggling with his driver going in to the event, he had to work at it all day to get the job done. But, he hung in there and kept his focus and advanced. It is much harder to advance when you are struggling, he did a nice job. We need to keep working on our fundamentals, we are still not where we need to be with our fundamentals but hopefully we can find something this week that can click for Ryan off the tee, and keep Jimmy on the same track.”
Districts will begin at 10 am. Monday October 8, at the Scotch Valley Country Club, with the low 40 players advancing into Tuesday’s competition, and eight then advancing to the state competition in mid October.
NOTE: Shawn Brannen of Hollidaysburg was medalist with a score of 73, while Altoona’s Chris Perry posted 74 and Hollidaysburg\’s Anthony DeGol were one shot back with 74s, just ahead of Ferguson. Tom Trexler of Bellwood-Antis, also qualified for the district match on Monday by posting an 82.
Also competing at the sectional were Matt Brooks (87), Matt Loose (94) and Jason Tuscovich (95) from Tyrone, and Matt beech (101), and Kyle Shawley (106) from Bellwood-Antis.
