Who, what to know as OHSAA boys and girls golf sectionals tee off
Believe it or not, postseason time in Ohio has officially arrived with the beginning of Ohio High School Athletic Association golf sectional tournaments.
Want to know the tournament schedule or some potential players who could take an early tournament title? Here is the info you need for the first postseason of the fall schedule.
More: Ohio high school golf: Same-team duos to watch as sectionals approach
What's the sectional golf schedule?
In the Southwest District, Division II girls sectionals kick off the show, running from Sept. 25 to Sept. 27. Division I girls will have sectionals on Oct. 2, Oct. 3 and Oct. 5 across three locations.
Boys golf in Ohio features three divisions and like the girls, tournaments run from the smaller divisions first to the bigger divisions. The three Division III sectionals run on Sept. 26. Division II will run a tournament a day from Sept. 26-Sept. 28 and Division I will have a week buffer, running a total of four big school sectionals on each day from Oct. 2-Oct. 5.
What happens after sectionals?
Like any postseason tournament, sectionals will be the end of the season for most, but a stepping stone to the next round for others.
For all sectional rounds, the top four teams will advance to the district tournament as well as the top four individual scorers who are not on a qualifying team.
Boys Division III begins the district rounds on Oct. 2, followed by Division II boys on Oct. 3 and Division II girls on Oct. 4. The boys in Division I will compete on Oct. 11 with the Division I girls concluding the round on Oct. 12.
All Southwest District tournaments will take place at Heatherwoode Golf Club in Springboro.
Who are some golfers to watch in the sectionals?
Boys
Division I
Cincinnati West Sectional
The Cincinnati West sectional at Whitewater features three of the four Greater Catholic League-South teams, including St. Xavier who won the tournament last season and had two of the top three finishers. Charlie Fish finished as medalist with a 72 and teammate Luke Kahle finished one shot behind and tied with Elder's Cayse Morgan with a 73. All three of those finishers return in 2023 and should be favorites to advance to the district meet.
Cincinnati East Sectional
This was the section dominated by the Mason Comets last season, but all five Mason golfers from last season's sectional championship team were seniors.
Anderson sophomore Charlie Straubel, who was the sectional runner-up last season as a freshman, has shaved nearly four strokes from his season average this year. Little Miami senior Jake Wittenauer leads the Eastern Cincinnati Conference in average and Greater Miami Conference average leader Toku Fujiwara of Lakota West will also compete in the sectional.
Dayton Sectional
Just like St. Xavier returned some high-talent, low-scoring players from a sectional title team, so did Springboro.
Springboro won the sectional played at Yankee Trace by 14 strokes last season with just one senior factoring in the scoring. Gavin Augenstein was the individual champion with Springboro teammate Jack Rott behind him in second. Augenstein and Rott as well as Bradley Hinkel and Eian Cambria in the top five of the Greater Western Ohio Conference in scoring and are the top dogs in the sectional.
Also look for Lebanon junior Peyton Lawley, the No. 2 golfer in the ECC, who finished third for fifth last season in the meet.
Division II
Cincinnati Sectional
For the sectional played at The Mill Course, turn your attention to the Cincinnati Hills League.
Wyoming's Finley Bartlett and Indian Hill's Alex Holzapfel both lead the CHL in scoring after finishing top two in the sectional last season. Mariemont's Will Stevens and Drew Seichter, Taylor's Caleb Bessler, Wyoming's Jack Webb and Madeira's Eddie Hartung are all CHL golfers that could be near the top of the qualifier list heading out of the sectional.
Division III
Indian Springs Sectional
Seven Hills golfer Charlie Mullin won the sectional in 2022 in the first step to leading Seven Hills to win the Division III state championship.
Mullin and Billy Good are the top finishers to return for Seven Hills while Cincinnati Christian's Jackson Raby was an individual district qualifier. Middletown Christian was also a team qualifier to the state tournament and Blake Green is its highest returner from the sectional tournament last year.
Girls
Division I
Hamilton Sectional
The Division I individual state champion last season, Mercy McAuley's Kylee Heidemann, came out of this sectional.
Ursuline Academy's Faith Brumfield, Springboro's Taylor Dunkle and Mount Notre Dame's Maureen Burns are the top returners from the sectional and have continued stellar seasons when the calendar flipped into 2023.
Cincinnati Sectional
The Cincinnati sectional at Walden Ponds features some of the heaviest hitters in the area.
Lakota East senior Clare Yeazell won the sectional last season and is the low average holder in the GMC with a 33.70 through 117 holes. Behind her in the GMC rankings are Sycamore's Caroline Thompson and Eva Becerril who both finished in the top 10 of the sectional standings last season.
Oak Hills senior Debra Brogan, St. Ursula senior Gracey Kelly and Lebanon senior Riley Johnson are also capable of not just advancing out of sectionals but winning the tournament.
Division II
Cincinnati Sectional
Fenwick's Sophie Rush, Seven Hills' Julia Zhu and Mariemont's Charlotte Soller took the top three spots in the sectional last season and all three return in 2023.
Rush, a junior for the Falcons, leads the GCL-Coed with a 42.24 average through 225 holes, right in line with the scores she had to win the sectional in 2022.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio high school golf: Who, what to know for Cincinnati sectionals
