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Red Devils sweep district golf titles

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Avon Park junior Greg Gentry was medalist in Monday's Class 1A-District 13 tournament at Wedgewood Country Club in Lakeland.

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By MARK PINSON

Highlands Today

Published: October 21, 2009

LAKELAND - The Avon Park boys and girls golf teams managed to overcome cold, windy conditions to win their respective district golf tournaments on Monday.

The Red Devil boys shot a four-person team score of 338 to finish first in the Class 1A-District 13 tournament at Wedgewood Country Club.

Avon Park junior Greg Gentry and senior Clay Davis shot 79, which tied for the low round of the day on the wind-swept course.

Gentry won medalist honors by beating Davis on the first playoff hole.

Avon Park senior Evan Danzey carded an 82 to finish fourth individually and Kevin Jahna shot a 98 to round out the Red Devils scoring.

"Things went well today in tough, cold conditions," said Avon Park coach Bobby Barben. "Wedgewood is a tight course and the wind was howling which made it play tougher than normal.

"Any score in the 70s was outstanding and I'm real proud of the guys for staying with it on a tough day and now it's on to regionals."

The top three teams advanced to next Monday's regional tournament at The Eagles Golf Club in Odessa with All Saints Academy finishing second with a 358 and Sonrise Christian third at 368.

With only the top two teams advancing to the state tournament, Avon Park will have to shoot a season-best score to keep its postseason hopes alive.

"Our regional is loaded with private schools and we're going to have to play well to be in the top two," the Red Devil skipper said. "We're going over for a practice round at The Eagles later this week to play the course for the first time.

"We had some challenges this season but we've been able to overcome those and we're going to have to shoot four low scores next week if we want to advance to the state tournament."

AP girls cruise to title

The Avon Park girls golf team shot a four-person, team score of 419 to win the Class 1A-District 13 tournament at Schalamar Creek Country Club on Monday.

This was the first district championship for the girls team and the Red Devils were led by senior captain Paige Moffat's 94, junior Sarah Hunnicutt shot a 95, junior Katelynn Stoll carded a 113 and junior Angela Bateman rounded out the team scoring with a 117.

"I'm so excited I'm about to jump out of my skin," said Avon Park second-year coach Suzie Gentry. "It was very windy and it was tough to get stated and get a rhythm going, but the girls hung in there and once it started to warm up they started to swing a lot better."

The top three teams advanced to next week's regional tournament at The Eagles Golf Club. Frostproof placed second with a 426 and Lakeland Christian came in third at 431.

"The girls are so excited about being district champions and moving on to regionals," Gentry said. "We've had an awesome season and the girls are looking forward to competing against some tough competition in the regionals.

"We made it to regionals last year and the experience should help us be better prepared for this year."

The Lake Placid girls team shot a team score of 551 to finish fourth in the Class 1A-District 16 tournament at The Preserve in Bradenton.

Junior Jessica Honkala led the Green Dragons with a 130, senior Ansley Stewart carded a 135, senior Weslee Davis shot a 141 and senior Nichele Browning rounded out the team scoring with a 145.

"I'm proud of all the girls," said Lake Placid coach Jennifer Gough. "The Preserve was a tough course and the greens were very fast.

"We had a good season and thanks to our three seniors for their effort."

Mark Pinson can be reached at 863-386-5837 or mpinson@highlandstoday.com

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