WINDSOR >> Making a push down the stretch is the Kelseyville High School golf team, which played its best match of the season Thursday during the first round of the Coastal Mountain Conference South Championships at the par-72 Windsor Golf Club.
The second and final round of the CMC South Championships is Tuesday at Oakmont West in Santa Rosa. The low four individual who are not members of the CMC South champion St. Vincent team advance to the North Coast Sectionals on May 8 at Rooster Run in Petaluma. Right now those four individuals are Kelseyville’s Matt Wotherspoon and Mike Beverlin, Geyserville’s Carson Kalvfleish and Middletown’s Hayden Sust.
While St. Vincent (36-0) long ago clinched the CMC South title, Kelseyville and Middletown have been battling it out for second place all season long. Tuesday’s final 18 holes at Oakmont West will determine which team finishes as the conference runner-up and what could mean a possible at-large berth into the sectional playoffs.
“They were motivated in practice this week,” Kelseyville coach John Berry said of his mostly green squad. “We picked a good time to play our best golf.”
Wotherspoon fired the low round of the day with a 5-over-par 77 that was 50-percent nightmare on the front nine where he fired a 8-over-par 44, and 50-percent beautiful dream on the back nine where he shot a 3-under-par 33 with three birdies (on the 10th, 14th and 18th holes).
“Wotherspoon showed he could really pull it together after a front nine where he was faltering everywhere,” Berry said.
Beverlin finished just one shot behind his teammate with a 6-over-par 78, “the best round of his life,” according to Berry.
Kelseyville’s other two low scorers were Jon Vanderwall with 99 — his first sub-100 round of the season — and Dylan Escobedo with a career-best 106.
As a result, Kelseyville finished with a team score of 360 to easily beat out Middletown (384) for second place. St. Vincent topped the field at 338 and St. Helena was fourth with 460. Geyserville, Technology and Rincon Valley Christian all had incomplete teams (fewer than four golfers).
For Middletown, Hayden Sust led the way with 88, Derek Coulter was next with 91, Quentin Crayne carded a 94, and Joziah Pyzer had 111.
Geyserville’s Kalvfleish finished with 80.
It took the South golfers more than five hours to complete their 18 holes because of other golfers on the course.
