Strong showing for SWC at Elyria Catholic Invitational

LAGRANGE — Wednesday saw another strong showing from the Southwestern Conference at Grey Hawk Golf Club, in particular from Avon and Avon Lake. Amherst, which emerged victorious at the Grey Hawk Invitational on Tuesday, was unable to replicate the success, though it did finish eighth out of 22 teams. Avon and Avon Lake, however, posted better team scores at the Elyria Catholic Invitational on Wednesday than they had Tuesday. Avon followed up a fourth-place finish out of 16 with a fifth-place finish, and Avon Lake improved from fifth out of 16 to a tie for third out of 22. Avon Lake was led by Tyler Fenton, who improved upon his Tuesday 84 with a 77, and Chase Cartwright, who shaved six strokes off his score to finish with a 79. For Avon, it was Zack Snyder, who shot a 77 after not playing Tuesday, and Jack Hecei, whose Wednesday score of 78 was a full 10 strokes better than his Tuesday effort. The biggest improvement of the week belonged to the host team, Elyria Catholic, which finished 14th out of 16 teams Tuesday but had a much better day at its home event, reducing its team score by 56 strokes and finishing 11th out of 22 teams. "With all these teams, to finish around the top 10 was good for us," said Elyria Catholic coach Rick Montgomery. "It's always good competition here, always against top teams." The Panthers were led by a pair of 84s from Alex Meecha and Sean Howell, who continued their strong starts to the season after they both shot in the 80s at Monday's Amherst Comet Invitational. "We had our younger guys step up today," Montgomery said. "Sean and Alex had two great performances coming off their performance at Oberlin, which was another good invite with all the top teams." Wednesday's performance shows that Tuesday's tournament was an outlier for Elyria Catholic, which proved it can hang with the area's top teams. "I definitely drove the ball well today," Meecha said. "I don't know the stats, but I hit a few fairways and was able to keep it in play." "The driver was working well," Howell added. "And I had a lot of good chips today." The standout individual performance of the day came from Independence's Kaden Schuette, who matched Amherst's Jaxson Yoder's winning score Tuesday of 70. Schuette also shot a 76 Tuesday, giving him a combined score of 146 between the two tournaments, the lowest of any player who played in both. Westlake came away with the team title, shooting 311 and just edging out Rocky River by two strokes. Team Results: Westlake 311, Rocky River 313, Avon Lake 316, St. Edward's 316, Avon 322, Riverside 331, Independence 331, Amherst 337, Fairview 341, Vermillion 343, Elyria Catholic 347, Keystone 354, Bay Village 356, Benedictine 366, Normandy 367, Firelands 368, Strongsville 370, North Olmsted 374, Wellington 377, Valley Forge 404, Holy Name 518, Open Door 567. Medalist: Kaden Schuette, Independence, 70. Top individuals: Finn Potts, Rocky River, 72; Matthew Brown, Westlake, 74; Rocco DeBolt, St. Edward's, 76; Cooper Albert, Westlake, 76; Peyton Wolf, Westlake, 76; Griffin Pickett, Riverside, 77; Nick Yondai, St. Edward's, 77; Tyler Fenton, Avon Lake, 77; Zack Snyder, Avon, 77. Westlake (311): Cooper Albert 76, Matthew Brown 74, Peyton Wolf 76, Blake Jenson 85, Ethan Thompson 88, Noah Fix 89. Rocky River (313): Caden Lawrence 80, Nolan Toole 83, Finn Potts 72, Vince Shrocco 80, Mateo Roselli 81, Anthony Coyne 97. Avon Lake (316): Kollin Nilson 83, Kooper Nilson 80, Max Prohaska 80, Chase Cartwright 79, Tyler Fenton 77, Ben Santo 82. St. Edward (316): Nick Yondai 77, Rocco DeBolt 76, Carson Torek 81, Cannon Driscoll 86, Sam Variglotti 82, Colin Libby 88. Avon (322): Ethan Olszowy 85, Jack Hecei 78, Zack Snyder 77, Cam Ocepek 82, Sam Griffiths 88, Vaughn Kopf 88. Riverside (331): Griffin Pickett 77, Connor Stein 80, Declan Jackson 79, Ashton Staton 95, Ryan Abbott 95, Trevor Thomas 102. Independence (331): Kaden Schuette 70, Johnny Walsh 83, David Crooks 91, Anderson Joliffe 87, Josh Gray 99, Owen Jenks 98. Amherst (337): Alek Kissane 80, Jordan Miller 83, Jaxson Yoder 80, Landon Wolf 94, Ben Taylor 94, Liam Puhalla 98. Fairview (341): Finn Heffron 97, Kenny Lowe 85, Carter Holiday 85, Maxx Sather 88, Ethan Szegedy 83, Julian Berger 105. Vermillion (343): Adam Gerber 87, Noah Penton 82, Sam Riddle 82, Landon Booker 93, Brody Harrow 109, Jackson Fahr 92. Elyria Catholic (347): Alex Meecha 84, Sean Howell 84, Griffin Volney 96, Dylan Kirsh 89, Giovanni Barb 90, Josh Anastasiadis 92. Keystone (354): Brody O'Boyle 86, Quinn Otto 88, Brady Schacht 88, Ryan Younglas 92, Austin Duta 95, Liam Goran 97. Bay Village (356): Matthew Mileti 84, Emmitt Naughton 86, Ryan Skryp 93, Will Schrock 93, Aiden Carey 94. Benedictine (366): Will Mylen 89, Luca Barci 100, Ryan Winterich 90, Cam Huggins 93, Zack Adre 94, Devon Heston 113. Normandy (367): Tommy Meisterics 82, Tommy Hayes 98, Jake Kelly 99, Thomas DuBroy 101, Alex Sanniti 88, Andrew Mourd 112. Firelands (368): Aaron Bement 92, Luke Grisez 87, Mikey Janosik 94, Kase Rogers 99, Camden Arnal 95, Kolbe Dodson 102. Strongsville (370): Nick Colagiovanni 88, Luke Trebuckowski 93, Bryson Parrott 108, Paxton Karabaic 87. Aidan Luber 103, Andrew Durica 102. North Olmsted (374): Kody Schneid 91, Brady Lane 100, Mason Anders 95, Caleb Gilchrist 88, Charlie Shuck 112, Joey DiBianca 110. Wellington (377): Zach Kehl 95, James Wacker 90, Colson West 84, Luke Sword 108, Caleb Hamer 110, Nathan Gereke 130. Valley Forge (404): Myles Wisniewski 96, Brady Daniels 99, Tyler Wasinski 107, Nolan Orlowski 102, Nick Turko 111, Justin Chang 124.