| | Published November 8th, 2023
| Team and individual success for Lamorinda golf
| | | By Jon Kingdon | | |
The North Coast Sectional Division 1 Championship was held Oct. 30 at the Tilden Park Golf Course in Berkeley.
The Acalanes Lady Dons competed as a team at the tournament, finishing 12th out of 21 teams, a result that first year head coach Roger Chelemedos was proud of. "We did not finish high enough to advance but we did beat Northgate (by 11 strokes) which was a big deal because they were undefeated in our league this year," Chelemedos said.
Haley Chelemedos led the Lady Dons, shooting an 81 under conditions that were initially trying. "At the start, it was pretty difficult because I was wearing a couple of layers which was impeding my swing but after it warmed up, I was able to play a lot better," Chelemedos said.
Chelemedos and her sister (Hana) were freshmen when their sister Makena was a senior. "Makena really helped me with the competitive aspect of golf when I was just playing for fun," Haley said. "Having someone like her when I was constantly competing with her and trying to beat her was helpful for me as a player and began to set my priorities straight and I saw what I needed to focus on and what I could do to improve. Hana and I tend to work together more than compete with each other."
The other players for Acalanes were Campbell Evans, Taylor Baker, Jordan Huskins, and Miracle Gu.
Roger Chelemedos stepped in to coach the Acalanes team when the need called. "I've had a lot of experience coaching so I offered to step in for two years maximum," he said. "The girls were so much fun to coach in that they were nice, attentive and listened to me and tried to apply what I told them, and they were super pleasant."
The week before, Miramonte, after finishing second in the league and in the DAL tournament, finished third at the Division 2 championship which was held at the Metropolitan Golf Links in Oakland. "I told the girls we were the D2 champions if you only count the public schools as we competed against a number of tough, private schools," coach Doug Senz said.
The Miramonte players were Paige Sovocool, Emma Wang, Marley Vlieks and Antong Cao. Sovocool, a sophomore, has been playing for six years and has a 7.2 index, shot a 79 at the championship and qualified as an individual to compete at the D1 championship and shot another 79 at Tilden.
With only one graduating senior, Senz is already looking forward to next year. "We got better as the year went on and the best part about the team was that they all carried that air of camaraderie and competitive joy," Senz said. "They're good golfers and better people and were always helpful to our opponents when they were playing on our home course at the Orinda Country Club."
Though lacking some depth to advance to the D1 tournament, Campolindo head coach Gary O'Neill had some young talent on the team that should show well in the future, led by junior Jasmine Malekafzali and freshmen Alina Wang and Dahye Park.
"Jasmine really improved dramatically from last year and was second team all-league," O'Neill said. "Alina was one of our best scorers and has a very bright future and Dayhe is really a nice golfer with a beautiful swing. They both just need to improve on their short game to be top golfers."
O'Neill also singled out and referred to senior Daisy Artist as "the Artist formally known as Daisy."
"Daisy could hit it a mile and played well in several of our matches and did well to make the league tournament," O'Neill said. "With the rest of our team, we did lead the league in having fun." |
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA