NIAGARA FALLS — Some decent spring weather greeted 65 junior golfers at the second annual Golf Ontario Team Ontario Cup. The event, held April 22-24 at the Grand Niagara Golf Club in Thorold, concluded with Ottawa’s Jake Bryson capturing the boys’ Overall and Juvenile division, while Windsor’s Shawn Sehra took the Bantam title. On the girls’ side, the Overall and Juvenile divisions were won by Richmond Hill’s Monet Chun and London’s Isabella Portokalis while Maple’s Alyssa DiMarcantonio took top honours in the Bantam division.
In addition to the individual awards, the competition awarded team trophies to the best regional teams. Five regional teams (Ottawa, York, Waterloo, Niagara and Essex-Kent) along with Team Ontario players contested a two-round individual stroke-play format competition, with the top four boys, and top three girls, contributing to their team standing. The team competition was only open to the five regional teams. Taking the boys’ team trophy was Team York, and the girls’ team trophy went to Team Essex-Kent.
Final Girls Team results:
Essex-Kent 491 (+59)
York 499 (+67)
Niagara 525 (+93)
Waterloo 537 (+105)
Ottawa 596 (+164)
Final Boys Team results:
York 606 (+30)
Essex-Kent 623 (+47)
Ottawa 628 (+52)
Waterloo 636 (+60)
Niagara 650 (+74)
In the individual competition, 16-year-old Bryson, battled tough conditions and an erratic driver on day one and finished with an even-par 72. He went head-to-head with teammate Ty Celone, from Long Sault, on the second day, and shot a two-under 70, to win the Overall and Juvenile divisions by one stroke.
Taking the Bantam boys division was Team Essex-Kent member Shawn Sehra with two steady rounds of five-over 77 to finish 10-over for the tournament.
On the girls’ side, Chun of Team Ontario, took the early lead with a steady even-par 72 to take a three-stroke lead after day one. Day two saw some exciting action as her Team Ontario teammate Portokalis went out on the front nine and shot a blazing six-under and closed for a personal best five-under 67. Portokalis held a two-stroke lead as Chun played the closing hole, but after two shots to the side of the par-five 18th green, Chun proceeded to chip in for an eagle to tie Portokalis for the Overall and Juvenile titles.
Winning the Bantam girls division was Team Ontario’s DiMarcantonio with a two-day total of seven-over 151.
Most Valuable Contributor
In addition to the on course championship, the event also featured a banquet on April 23, at the Marriott Gateway on the Falls hotel, where each team presented their Most Valuable Contributor (MVC) award.
The MVC award goes to the male and female on the team that best exemplifies: leadership, integrity, sportsmanship, team spirit and work ethic. Award winners are voted on by their teammates. Winning the awards for their squads were:
Team Essex-Kent – Brooke Mackinnon (Chatham), Shawn Sehra (Windsor), presented by Head Coach Randy McQueen
Team Niagara – Taylor Simoneau (St. Catharines), Matthew Gibson (Jordan), presented by Head Coach John White
Team Ottawa – Karianne Lefebvre (Ottawa), Tyler Read (Brockville), presented by Head Coach Adam Holden
Team Waterloo – Jillian Friyia (London), Dylan Henderson (Waterloo), presented by Head Coach Mike Martz
Team York – Madelin Boyd (Oshawa), Zack Mason (Toronto), presented by Head Coach Jeff Overholt
Team Ontario – Alexandra Naumovski (Brampton), Sam Meek (Peterborough), presented by Head Coach Reggie Millage
Ontario Summer Games Exemptions
Based on the results from the Team Ontario Cup, 15 exemptions were awarded for the upcoming Ontario Summer Games, August 9-12, in Mississauga. Gaining exemptions through their results at the Team Ontario Cup were, for girls: Karianne Lefebvre, Vaijayanti Bharkhada, Kyra Vandervoort, Shannon Coffey and Taylor Simoneau. As for boys, the following earned exemptions: Cameron Belanger, Ethan Johnston, Zack Mason, Eric (Joohyung) Byun, Eli Mathew, Carter Snowden, Luc Warnock, Shawn Sehra, Jason Maloney and Mathew Gibson.
Golf Ontario would like to thank our volunteer officials – Ian and Ruth Giles and Randy Millage, and the staff at both the host club Grand Niagara and Marriott Gateway on the Falls, for all of their efforts in pulling off this great event. For full individual and team results click here: https://gao.bluegolf.com/bluegolf/gao16/event/gao16221/contest/1/leaderboard.htm
