Marissa Balish and Olivia Zambruno Win WPIAL Girls Golf

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Tuesday, October 6, 2015 | 6:18 PM


Olivia Zambruno of Greensburg Central Catholic repeated as WPIAL Class AA champ while Marissa Balish of Hampton captured gold in Class AAA Tuesday afternoon at the Rolling Hills Country Club in McMurray. Both won in convincing fashion with with Balish shooting at 1-over par 73 and winning by three strokes while Zambruno shot a 3-over par 75 to win by five strokes.

It was the first district crown for the senior Balish while the junior Zambruno won for a second straight year. Balish is a member of the Talbots boys golf team since the girls do not have a team at Hampton. Zambruno did the same thing last year for the Centurions, but this year, a girls team was added at Greensburg Central Catholic.

Three of the seven PIAA AAA qualifiers are freshman, including Christina Lewis of North Allegheny and Laurel Freyvogel of Pine-Richland, who finished tied with Maddy McDanel of Central Valley for second place with rounds of 77. NA’s Caroline Wrigley was the other 9th grader to qualify after she finished fifth with a 79. In all, three Tigers, including Megan Leto, earned a spot from the WPIAL for the event at Toms Run in two weeks.

2014 Class AAA runner-up Johnna Beehner of Gateway was attempting to qualify for the PIAA Regional for the fourth time in her career, but she finished tied for 13th place with an 85.

In Class AA, Marissa Kirkwood of Neshannock finished in second place with a score of 81, five strokes back. The daughter of Lancers baseball coach Mike Kirkwood pulled to within three strokes of the lead after 15 holes, but lost two more strokes as Zambruno parred out the final three holes. 

Seven of the 33 Class AAA golfers qualified for the PIAA Western Regional on October 19th at Toms Run Golf Course in Blairsville, while there were eight spots available for the eight Class AA golfers providing you were able to shoot 100 or under. Seven of the eight AA golfers were able to do keep their score in double digits to qualify.

Here are the final totals with the PIAA Western Regional qualifiers in bold.

         
Pos  
Player / Team  
Total  
Thru  
To Par  
 

         
1 Marissa Balish – Hampton 74 18 +1
T2 Christina Lewis – North Allegheny 77 18 +4
T2 Lauren Freyvogel – Pine Richland 77 18 +4
T2 Maddy McDanel – Central Valley 77 18 +4
5 Caroline Wrigley – North Allegheny 79 18 +6
T6 Megan Leto – North Allegheny 82 18 +9
T6 Mia Kness – Peters Twp 82 18 +9
T8 Bella Petrone – Upper St Clair 83 18 +10
T8 Bridget Merten – Mars 83 18 +10
T10 Alex Bozich – Central Valley 84 18 +11
T10 Danae Rugola – Uniontown 84 18 +11
T10 Natalie Abt – Shaler 84 18 +11
T13 Casey Morrow – Shady Side Academy 85 18 +12
T13 Johnna Beehner – Gateway 85 18 +12
T15 Amanda Conner – Penn Trafford 86 18 +13
T15 Natalie Welsh – Mars 86 18 +13
T17 Abagail Vietmeier – Montour 87 18 +14
T17 Brooke Hilden – Peters Twp 87 18 +14
T17 Taylor Waller – Canon McMillan 87 18 +14
20 Hannah Conroy – Fox Chapel 88 18 +15
21 Taylor Short – Hempfield 89 18 +16
22 Courtney Wahlstrom – Seneca Valley 86 17 +17
23 Alexandra Muracca – Shady Side Academy 91 18 +18
T24 Ciera Miller – Fox Chapel 92 18 +19
T24 Elizabeth Engel – Upper St Clair 92 18 +19
T24 Synclaire Kuhn – Peters Twp 92 18 +19
27 Logan Everett – Indiana 93 18 +20
T28 Morgan Johnson – Norwin 94 18 +21
T28 Vanessa Taylor – Baldwin 94 18 +21
30 Jessica Myers – Oakland Catholic 95 18 +22
31 Paige Colicchi – West Allegheny 101 18 +28
32 Rachel Howard – Norwin 100 17 +31
33 Emily Robinson – Fox Chapel 112 17 +43
 

CLASS AA FINAL RESULTS:

         
Pos  
Player / Team  
Total  
Thru  
To Par  
 

         
1 Olivia Zambruno – Greensburg CC 76 18 +3
2 Marissa Kirkwood – Neshannock 81 18 +8
3 Katie Carlson – Northgate 83 18 +10
T4 Annika Erdely – Frazier 86 18 +13
T4 Audrey Dougherty – Freeport 86 18 +13
6 Abby Zambruno – Greensburg CC 94 18 +21
7 Joei Ritmiller – Hopewell 95 18 +22
8 Emily Marcus – South Park 113 18 +40
 

 

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