UNIVERSITY PARK — The home course didn’t turn out to be an advantage for most of the Centre County contingent playing in the PIAA Golf Championships on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 17-18 at Penn State University.
A freshman from St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy, though, put a nice bow on the first season of what has the potential to be an extraordinary scholastic athletic career.
Maddie Koshko turned in the best finish relative to her classification of any of the county’s half-dozen golfers at the two-day meet, placing sixth in the Class 2A girls’ division.
“It was really fun competing in states. The girls I played with were really nice and it was a great experience,” Koshko said. “The only emotion I was feeling was excitement.”
Koshko shot a 14-over-par 158 on the Blue Course, struggling a bit in Day 2. Koshko was in third place after the opening round, making birdies on 6, 9 and 16 to go to the clubhouse with a score of 74 to trail only Hannah Robb of Warrior Run and Anna Swan of North East.
Robb won the tournament by shooting even par.
“I played really well the first day,” Koshko said. “I think I expected too much from myself the second day, and that’s why I didn’t play so well the second day.”
WolfPack coach Chad Walsh was pleased in what is hoped to be the first of several trips to states for the prodigy.
“Just an incredible season,” Walsh said. “Maddie works incredibly hard, she holds herself to a very high standard, and she loves the sport. I know she had the goal of winning, and at this moment she probably feels a bit disappointed. But I know that she will be able to step back and see amazing accomplishments she has had in her first varsity golf season.
“She has made us all very proud, and I cannot wait to see where she goes from here.”
The stage didn’t seem too big for Koshko, the District 6 champion, and she already seems to have some awareness of the uniqueness of the shoes in which she’s walking.
“The highlight of the tournament for me is making it as far as I did as a freshman,” Koshko said. “The girls I played with on Monday and Tuesday were either juniors or seniors.”
None of the five Centre County boys was able to crack the top 20 in their respective classifications. District 6 champion Max Wager of State College turned in the best score, shooting a plus-7 151 on the White Course, good for a tie for 23rd in Class 3A. Wager carded a 74 in Tuesday’s round.
Meanwhile, St. Joseph’s Tim Peters, the District 6 Class 2A champion, placed the highest among the county boys by sharing 22nd place with two others. Playing the Blue Course, Peters finished with a plus-13 157. He bounced back from a rough first day to shoot 74 on Tuesday, registering four birdies.
State College’s Joey Sabol was tied for 57th in Class 3A with a 161. Bellefonte’s duo of Isaak Bloom and Davis Corman tied for 46th and 49th, respectively, in Class 2A. Bloom finished at 166. Corman completed the two rounds in 167 shots.
In addition to Robb, the other individual champions were Devon Prep’s Nick Ciocca with a minus-6 138 in 2A boys, Cedar Crest’s Dylan Ramsey with a minus-4 140 in 3A boys and Lower Merion’s Sydney Yermish with a minus-5 139 in 3A girls.
