Marty Gordon
NRVsports@ourvalley.org
Blacksburg High School is working on a golf dynasty, and earlier this week at Thornspring Country Club, they took the first step in the search for another state championship rolling over five other teams with a 309 team score.
Hidden Valley, who is the defending Class 3 state champ, finished the match with a score of 317 for second place.
Blacksburg has won two state championships in a row, beginning with a 3A title in 2016 and a 4A title in 2017, and finished the year ranked 54th in the nation and second in the state of Virginia.
Blacksburg’s top six golfers last season were: Ben Carroll, Chris Zhang, Soren Winistorfer, Jonah Winistorfer, Jake Duncan and Melissa Meng. The bad news for opponents is that all are seniors this coming year with the exception of Weng who is a junior.
Coach Rick Mattox said the success of this team is the exceptional quality of the golfers.
“All six have the capability to shoot 75 or lower on any given day. It is rare to have this many quality golfers on a single team. You have to go back to the days (2006-08) when we had Courtney Ellenbogen, Brian Langley, George Perkovich, Michael Beeken, Jake Mond, and Steven Deutsch who could duplicate this feat. That group won three consecutive state championships,” he said.
The team took the 4A title with an amazing two-day total of 288, which tied the all-time low score for VHSL golf.
Soren Winistorfer took the VHSL Class 4 individual title in Abingdon with a closing 69 for a two-day score of 141. Zhang finished second at 143.
Carroll was the River Ridge player of the year and finished third in VHSL Class 4 state tournament with two-day score of 144.
In this week’s meet, Duncan and Jonah Winistorfer both shot a 76. Soren Winistorfer recorded a 78.
Zhang, who shot an 81, was set to play in the state Junior PGA championships on Friday at the Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.
Mattox said a lot of their success is due to the outstanding support from the Blacksburg Country Club.
“Going back to the days of Steve Prater, and following with Brad Ewing and the current head professional, Casey Jones, they all have been supportive of our golf program. Plus, they all support junior golf which feeds into our high school program. Other programs are not as fortunate as we are, having access to a top-notch golf course, head professional and practice facilities,” the coach said.
“Looking ahead, he feels some optimism with all of the team returning this year.
We hope to be competitive next year as we seek to defend our 4A championship. In 2015, despite failing to send a complete team to the region tournament, we qualified five individuals and actually shot the lowest round of the tournament. This was the first time this feat had ever been accomplished,” he said.
Mattox hopes the team can improve on the national ranking and maybe, bring back another state title. In this week’s match Christiansburg High School finished fifth with a 364.
