By MARC GAGNE
STONEHAM — The second-to-last varsity golf match of the season for Wakefield Memorial High School took place on Oct. 12 against rival Stoneham High School on a warm, sunny October day at the Bear Hill Golf Club in Stoneham. Wakefield played nine impressive holes on the course that lies on either side of North Street leading from Stoneham down toward Lake Quannapowitt.
Foursomes lined up to play, two from each team and they walked the course carrying their clubs. The first and second-ranked players from each team started in the first foursome, and the highest-ranked Wakefield player faced off one-on-one scoring-wise against the highest-ranked player from Stoneham. The scores for the second-ranked players from each team in the foursome were matched up and so on down the line. The ninth and tenth-ranked players from each team were the last group to play.
Points are scored based on how many holes you win against your opponent. If a player gets a lower score for one hole, he or she gets a point. If there is a tie at a certain hole, half a point is awarded to the two players.
Donovan Foley for Wakefield racked up the most points against an opponent with 8. Drew Barrett won against his opponent with 6.5 points. Sarah Nemec won with 5.5 points.
Freshman Luke Greif also won his head-to-head matchup, but his score unfortunately did not count toward the total because he was the ninth player and only eight scores are included.
When Greif was asked about his time with the varsity team, he said, “It was a good experience for my first year and I enjoyed playing with many different people.”
Wakefield ended up losing by only three points to Stoneham, a very close finish.
After the nine holes were finished, Joseph Coliton had the fewest number of strokes overall for Wakefield with 40 and Jacob Dubuque finished right behind Coliton with 41 strokes.
These were the following stroke totals: Donovan Foley with 43 strokes, John Porter with 44 strokes, Drew Barrett with 46 strokes, Sarah Nemec with 47 strokes, Ryan Marsh with 50 strokes and Owen Michaud with 51 strokes.
When asked how the season has gone, head coach Chris Keane said, “We’ve had a really fun season. My captains (Marsh and Foley) and seniors have been terrific. We did lose nine seniors from last year and only returned one varsity golfer. I’d say for how many new golfers we’ve had that the season has been a big success.”
The last match of the season was the following day, on Wednesday, when Wakefield lost to Arlington. The team will look forward to another solid season next year.
