The results certainly weren’t projected to turn out so favorably for the Wakefield Warriors golf team.
The co-ed high-school golf squad entered the seven-team 18-hole Liberty District tournament at Herndon Centennial Golf Course as a lower seed. A fourth-place finish would have been considered a success.
The Warriors did much better than that, placing second with a 309 team score — a longtime best.
“I thought we had a chance of making the top three, maybe, if we played well. But getting second is huge for this team,” Wakefield coach Dave Knorr told ARLnow. “That 309 score is fantastic for us.”
The runner-up spot earned Wakefield a first-time berth to play in the upcoming 6D North Region tournament. In previous years, the Warriors qualified to play in Group 5 region tournaments, but had not reached the higher 6D level until this fall.
Last year, Wakefield placed fifth in what was then a 36-hole district tournament with scores of 320 and 319.
The Langley Saxons won this year’s Liberty tournament with a 293 total. Arlington’s Yorktown Patriots and the two-time defending champion Washington-Liberty Generals placed third and fourth, respectively, with 315 and 324 totals.
Yorktown and W-L were projected to contend for the title, but did not play well.
“We got help because Yorktown and W-L didn’t have great days,” Knorr said.
Individually, Wakefield was led by veteran junior player Phillip Verghese with a 73 to place fourth in the scoring. Senior Tommy Zwicker shot 77 to tie for ninth, senior Lachlan Capps carded a 79 and junior Eliana Procida had 80. Senior Miles Maravilla shot 83 and freshman Flynn Uscinski 84.
“Our team took the right mindset of just playing shot by shot and staying in the moment for this tournament,” Verghese said. “We hadn’t showed this well in a tournament in a while.”
Maravilla said he didn’t play his best in the tournament, but pointed out that the Warriors’ performance displayed the team’s talent and depth.
“We’d had some close calls trying to finish this well in past district tournaments,” Maravilla said.
Knorr said a big factor in the runner-up finish was the strong back-nine scores of Wakefield’s four lowest-scoring players. Zwicker shot 34 on the back side, Verghese 36, Procida 38 and Capps 39.
Zwicker is also a baseball player at Wakefield and hadn’t played much golf regularly until practice for the Warriors’ fall season began in July.
“Tommy had a very, very good [back] nine holes in him,” Knorr said. “He has worked very hard on his game since July.”
Washington-Liberty’s Emmett Spence shot 72 to tie for second to lead the Generals, with teammate Colin Hanley shooting 77. For Yorktown, Grey Luongo shot 76 and Ginger Beall 78.
In other Wakefield sports action:
Football: In football, the Wakefield Warriors had different results in their past two games. The Warriors defeated the visiting Lewis Lancers, 34-12, at home, then lost to the host Justice Wolves, 26-2, on the road to even their record at 2-2.
Leading the way against Lewis was running back Miles Robbins with 155 yards rushing and quarterback Judah Connor with 110 yards passing, 78 rushing yards and two touchdowns. George Fuentes passed for 40 yards and a TD. Aman Azad, Brayden Murray and Aiden Davis (one touchdown) each caught three passes, and Amare Diene caught two.
Andrew Jackson kicked two field goals and multiple extra points.
On defense, Wakefield had four interceptions, one by Azad that was returned 50 yards for a touchdown. Dash Gloss and Theodore Romano each made seven tackles and each had an interception. Cameron McCulloch also had an interception.
Wakefield fell behind early against Justice, then was never able to sustain an offensive drive as it was hurt by multiple turnovers. Its only score came on a first-half safety.
Wakefield has a bye this coming week and does not play again until it hosts the Washington-Liberty Generals (3-1) in a Liberty District all-Arlington clash on Friday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m.
Cross country: In cross country, Aila Simkiss for the Wakefield Warriors finished 52nd in the girls 5,000-meter varsity race in 20:47 at the Sept. 19 Wolverine Invitational meet at Woodgrove High School in Purcellville. In the boys meet for Wakefield, Kia Simkiss was the team’s top finisher in 88th in 17:23.
Volleyball: In volleyball, the Wakefield Warriors had four wins in girls action entering this week, while the boys varsity team had yet to win a match. Among its four losses were two close 3-2 setbacks against the Langley Saxons and Lewis Lancers.
The girls’ victories were over Annandale, Justice, South Lakes and Tuscarora.
Field hockey: In girls field hockey, the Wakefield Warriors’ lone victory so far has been a 3-0 triumph over Falls Church in non-district play.
Flag football: In girls flag football, the Wakefield Warriors opened their season with a 12-6 loss against Hylton.
