Hazleton finishes 5th on Penn State White Course
State College, Pa. - The Hazleton Nittany Lions' day came to a close with a middle of the pack finish in the first of two Penn State University Athletic Conference Golf Invitational events at the University Park golf complex. Thursday's match featured seven campuses grinding away on the Penn State White Course where for the second time this season, Penn State Mont Alto pulled away from the field with a profound victory, cashing in a superb combined team score of 299. Mont Alto teammates Tom Shearer and Austin Green both turned in outstanding rounds of one under par 71 as the southern campus bested their closest competitors by 25 strokes. Shearer and Green's outstanding performances earned the duo shared medalist honors, but the pair had company on the podium in the form of Lehigh Valley's Brian Zinman who equaled the feat of 71 and claimed a tie for first in the individual competition.
Landing their second runner-up finish of the season was Penn State Wilkes-Barre who posted four solid scores to total 324 for the solo second spot. Hazleton came up just two strokes shy of a third place finish, but found themselves finishing fifth out of seven teams with a total score of 346 behind Lehigh Valley and DuBois with scores of 344 and 345 respectively. Penn State New Kensington and Schuylkill rounded out the field in the sixth and seventh place with totals of 354 and 364.
The Nittany Lions were led by junior Zach Kyttle (Berwick, Pa.) who finished in tenth place individually with a total of 82 strokes. Kyttle suffered three double-bogeys on the front nine, two of which coming on par threes that spoiled an early birdie in the round. The junior righted the ship with three pars to start the back nine, but four bogeys on the inward half pushed Kyttle's score to 10 over par. Despite struggles with the short irons, Kyttle was excellent off the tee, hitting 90 percent of the fairways and looks poised for a breakout round. Finishing close behind Kyttle with another solid performance on the links was freshman John Hawley (Mountain Top, Pa.) who's 83 landed him in a tie for 11th place. Freshman Joshua Provost (Hazleton, Pa.) ended the day at plus 19 (91) with freshman Geran Triano (Sugarloaf, Pa.) finishing with a 92 to round out the top Hazleton scores.
Next up
Hazleton will have ten days to prep before heading south to face Mont Alto on their home course of Waynesborogh Country Club on September 19.
Final Team Results
1. Mont Alto - 299
2. Wilkes-Barre - 324
3. Lehigh Valley - 344
4. DuBois - 345
5. Hazleton - 346
6. New Kensington - 354
7. Schuylkill - 364
Top 10 Individual Scores
T-1. Tom Shearer (MA) -1 (71)
T-1. Austin Green (MA) -1 (71)
T-1. Brian Zinman (LV) -1 (71)
T-4. Jordan Tosh (DB) +5 (77)
T-4. Jordan Shaffer (MA) +5 (77)
T-6. Jonathan Wilson (WB) +6 (78)
T-6. Nick Engleman (LV) +6 (78)
T-8. Owen Groft (MA) +8 (80)
T-8. Jeff Carter (WB) +8 (80)
10. Zach Kyttle (HN) +10 (82)