James River’s Landon Bolling and the Auburn High School team were the big winners in last week’s Botetourt Metro Golf Tournament. Bolling was the individual medalist and Auburn was the team champion in the annual event that traditionally tees off the high school golf season.
Bolling, a senior, shot a four-under-par 67 for the tournament, beating Gaston Wimmer by one stroke and Liam Smith by two. Wimmer and Smith both play for Auburn, who won the team championship with a score of 289, just five strokes over par for their combined four scoring players. Auburn won the big trophy after finishing second behind Floyd County last summer.
Second place goes to Cave Spring, 14 strokes behind the Eagles at 303. Then it gets close as Blacksburg and E.C. Glass tied for third at 306 and James River was just one stroke behind them at 307 for fifth place. In addition to Bolling the Knights had a 73 from Mason Gilliland, a 77 from Braden Persinger and the fourth score was a 90 from Charlie Tingler.
River and Lord Botetourt hosted the tournament and LB finished in a tie for 14th among 18 teams. Alisa Davidova, one of the top players in the Roanoke Valley, did not compete for LB in the tournament.
“We shot 20 strokes better than we did last year but a lot of teams played really well,” said LB coach Todd Smith. “We had two in the 70s and one that just missed. I wasn’t at all disappointed.”
Photos by Scott Gardner
Cole Cecil led the Cavaliers with a 76 followed by Derek Bond at 79. Jackson Taylor shot 80 and Jonah Dunker rounded out the top four with a 90.
Botetourt is scheduled to be back in action Thursday with the first Blue Ridge District match of the season. That will be played at Mariner’s Landing.
James River had its first Three Rivers District match last Thursday at the Forest Park course in Martinsville. Floyd won the round with a 317 followed by Radford at 320 and James River at 324. This time Gilliland was medalist with a 73 for River, edging Hunter Crist of Radford by one stroke. Also scoring for the Knights were Persinger with a 79, Bolling with an 83 and Mason Francis with an 89.
“We fell short of where I thought we would finish but Braden had his best district score ever,” said River coach Donna Cox.
James River had a match against Rappahannock at the Hobbs Hole Golf Club on Tuesday but results were too late for publication, and a Monday match at Floyd was postponed. The Knights will host the district this Thursday at the Botetourt Golf & Swim Club, with the first tee time scheduled for 1 p.m.
