BRIDGEWATER – Holy Angels has been New Jersey’s No. 1 high school girls golf team from the first drive on the first day to the last putt on the last day.
The young Angels won their first NJSIAA Girls Golf Team Championship on Tuesday at Raritan Valley Country Club by 14 strokes. A repeat next season for this sophomore-led group is not beyond reach.
“We pretty much played well all year,” said Pat Dunne, Holy Angels’ longtime coach, “so this is just the culmination of it.”
Holy Angels carded a shoot-five, count-four score of 325 to spearhead an unprecedented 1-2-3 finish by Bergen County schools. Bergen Tech was runner-up at 339 and Immaculate Heart shot 345 and was third among the nine teams.
Holmdel sophomore Sirina Ganne won the 22n.d Individual Championship with a 2-over 74 that was one shot better than four players who carded 75: Kavya Ajjarapu of Voorhees was runner-up via match of cards, followed by South Brunswick’s Vidhi Lakhawala, West Orange’s Samantha Galantini, and Claire Lu of Wardlaw -Hartridge.
The NJSIAA introduced a team championship in 2004 and this is the first time a Bergen County school has won since the four-score format was introduced in 2009. Last year, Bergen County had a strong showing, with Holy Angels runner-up to repeat title list Wardlaw-Hartridge, while Bergen Tech was third and Immaculate Heart fourth.
“I really think that the girls all motivate each other,” Bergen Tech coach Sue Polonsky said, “and push each other to work harder, within the teams, and also among the top teams.”
“The golf caliber, it’s not just practicing with their high school teams, they have an insanely amazing work ethic on the golf course on their own,” Immaculate Heart coach Lauren Rhein said. “They know how to prioritize their time and they know what needs to be done inside and outside the classroom and on and off the golf course.”
Holy Angels won this season with five-player depth and Tuesday was no exception. Sophomore Angelina Kim shot 80 and freshman Olivia Lee 81. Sophomore Inha Jun had 83, sophomore Sharanya Agarwal 85 and senior Amelia Shen 87.
Kim said Holy Angels focused on the team aspect and, “We definitely were a little more conservative.” Dunne said the Angels were totally relaxed on the bus ride down from the all-girls parochial school in Demarest.
“On the way here, I hear the laughter in the back of the bus,” Dunne said. “They weren’t nervous at all. They just came here, let it fly, and whatever happened, happened.”
“We had a really great season, so we were just chilling on the bus ride,” said Kim, whose team won league, county, sectional and state titles. “We weren’t worried about how we played today, as long as we had fun.”
Ganne, among the state’s top players, had fun. She had three birdies, three bogeys and a double-bogey on the 5,800-yard layout to win by one stroke.
“I think I played very steady today, from start to finish,” Ganne said. “And my short game was really good, and all my shots were good, and I think I was in all the right places on the course.”
A player was disqualified, veteran tournament director Dick Bennett confirmed, but he declined to elaborate, saying only, “It was a serious breach of rules.”
NJSIAA Girls Golf Championship
At Raritan Valley CC, Bridgewater
Couple: 72; Yardage: 5,800
Team scores
Holy Angels 325
Bergen Tech 339
Immaculate Heart 345
356 Kent Place
Wardlaw-Hartridge 360
Moorestown 393
West Windsor-Plainsboro South 411
Princeton 418
Lenape 421
Individuals
Sirina Ganne, Holmdel 74
Kavya Ajjarapu, Voorhees 75
Vidhi Lakhawala, 75 South Brunswick
Samantha Galantini, West Orange 75
Claire Lu, Wardlaw-Hartridge 75
Taylor Sieg, 76 Kent Place
Zoey Zhu, Ridge 77
Madeleine Zhang, Princeton 78
Ysabel Liu, 78 Millburn
Rayee Feng, Pingry 79
Angelina Kim, Holy Angels 80
Sophia Miller, 80 Kent Place
Tanya Chowdary, Wardlaw-Hartridge 80
Olivia Lee, Holy Angels 81
Cassandre Mayer, Paramus Catholic 81
Catherine Little, 81 Trinity Hall
Sammie Dolce, Morris Tech 82
Olivia Pak, Bergen Tech 82
Victoria Jolakian, 82 Ramapo
Aubrey Lee, Bergen Tech 82
Isabelle Meltzer, Summit 82
Kashish Malik, Marlboro 82
Vaidehi Shah, Bridgewater-Raritan 83
Anuska Sawant, South Brunswick 83
Inha Jun, Holy Angels 83
Bella Crespo, Bergen Tech 83
Marisa Flores, Immaculate Heart 83
Julia McCloskey, West Windsor-Plainsboro South 83
Emily Renoff, Glen Ridge 84
Sofia Pangan, Passaic Tech 84
Tanisha Bohra, 84 Monroe
Tanvia Samayam, Hillsborough 84
Mary Korab, Morris Catholic 85
Reese Hannon, Mt. St. Mary 85
Katherine Liu, 85 Moorestown
Sharanya Agarwal, Holy Angels 85
Rebecca Lee, 85 Fort Lee
Aileen Kang, Fort Lee 86
Amelia Shen, Holy Angels 87
Carolina Fixter, Morristown 87
Peyton Cerminaro, Howell 87
Alana Flores, Immaculate Heart 88
Emerson Paulette, 88 Allentown
Skylar Lee, Immaculate Heart 88
Ava Choi, Wardlaw-Hartridge 89
Minna Liang, Holmdel 89
Isabella Scanapicco, 89 Trinity Hall
Madisyn Falto, Immaculate Heart 90
Chloe Kim, Old Tappan 92
Isabella Del Bosco, Immaculate Heart 92
Lily Patel, Westfield 92
Grace Cheng, Bridgewater-Raritan 96
Katherine Lim, Bergen Tech 96
Maddy Lukang, Bergen Tech 97
Huseina Basrai, 97 East Brunswick
Kathryn Cepeda, 98 Kent Place
Ryann Foley, Lenape 101
Macal Klein, Moorestown 101
Ashley Kim, Moorestown 103
Tia Sindhu, Princeton 103
Brooke Tufankjian, 106 Kent Place
Seyhr Singh, Lenape 107
Jordan Broiles, Lenape 107
Sana Manchanda, West Windsor-Plainsboro South 107
Rachana Raja, 108 Moorestown
Lena Hogg, 108 Moorestown
Nesa Shah, Lenape 110
Zofia Bath, West Windsor-Plainsboro South 111
Evelyn Pazan, Lenape 111
Aru Kakar, West Windsor-Plainsboro South 114
Raima Srivastava, Princeton 119
Nitya Sahni, Wardlaw-Hartridge 120
Lily Bauer, 121 Wardlaw-Hartridge
Eva Gupta, West Windsor-Plainsboro South 121
Rachel McInerney, Princeton 122
Jane Cepeda, 133 Kent Place
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Highlights from Tuesday’s NJSIAA Girls Golf Championship