October 19, 2006 Issue                                       

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©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

MSJ’s Arena first, Gimpel tenth at district golf tourney
by TOM UTESCHER

Last week Mount St. Joseph Academy senior Victoria Arena won the PIAA District I golf championship for the second time in her career, and Mount freshman Emily Gimpel took tenth place at the two-day district tournament.

Arena won the District I title in 2004, and placed third last year before going on to share in a four-way tie for the 2005 state championship. This year, she won the district crown with an eight-over-par score of 151, playing at two different courses near Limerick, PA. Gimpel recorded a combined score of 184 at the event.

The first day’s action was staged at par-71 Raven’s Claw Golf Club on Wednesday, and after the field was cut to ten players, the championship round took place the following day at par-72 Turtle Creek Golf Club.

With five players qualifying for Districts, the Mount was the best- represented school in the tournament field. On Wednesday, the Magic were split up so that each girl played in a different threesome, but all of their tee times fell within a 40-minute timespan.

Playing with the second group to start out on the course, Arena set the standard for all the other competitors with a two-over-par 73. Her two extra strokes came on the front nine, where she carded a 38, and at the end of the day she would be the only player to par the back nine, with a 35.

“There were a bunch of quirky little holes, but I was able to recover out there a lot,” Arena related. “Sometimes I hit a wayward shot, but I was able to pull it back. It was a solid round; it wasn’t really great, but it got the job done.”

The other MSJ player to make the cut was Gimpel, the ninth grader, who gathered momentum on the back nine to put up an 81 (43/38). Senior Christen Kouch also found the return trip to her liking, shooting a 39 after taking 47 strokes on the journey out. Her score of 86 placed her tenth on the leaderboard for a time, then other players began to finish up with rounds in the lower 80’s.

The third Magic upperclassman in the field, Carson Price, registered a 97 (47/50), and sophomore Nicole Weinrich had a score of 106 (50/56).

For day two, the scene shifted to nearby Turtle Creek, the site of the district tournament both in 2004 and last year. Although Arena was familiar with the course, the weather conditions caused all the players to make adjustments. Strong winds helped dry the course following overnight rains, but they had negative effects, too.

“The wind was so powerful that it was really hard to control your shots,” Arena said. “You tried to keep the ball as low as you could, but it was even hard to do that.”

Still, the Mount senior was a model of consistency. Par was 36 strokes both going out and coming back, and Arena produced a pair of 39’s, even dividing her two birdies and a pair of double bogies between the front and back nine. Her foursome included Christine Shimel, a talented sophomore from Kennett High School who’d been just two strokes behind Arena on Wednesday, with a 75.

On Thursday, Arena recounted, “She was one up [overall] at the turn, then I had a chip-in for birdie on 11, and that kind of got things rolling again for me. With the wind, I just wanted to get pars. On a day like that, par is your friend.”

Arena’s focus netted her the victory as Shimel, who’d carded a 36 for the front nine, shot a 44 on the back side. For the tournament, she was four strokes behind the MSJ standout, with a score of 155.

With her tenth-place finish, the Mount’s Gimpel was still able to move on to the Eastern Regional Tournament, which takes place this week.

At Turtle Creek, she said “The wind kind of took the balls all over the place. The fairways were still a little wet but the greens were fast, and I didn’t have my best day putting.”

In PIAA team competition, the Magic learned that they’ve received a pass all the way through to the state championships. As the only all-girls school to qualify for Districts, the Mount took the District I title without a fight.

“Our team is awesome to play with, and I’m so happy that we’re going to States,” gushed Gimpel. “At the end of the district tournament Victoria and I got a big trophy for our team, and when we brought it into school everyone was really excited.”