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Ellie Benson of Peters Township shot a team-best 73 to help the Indians win the PIAA Class 3A golf championship Wednesday at Penn State.
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Peters Township sweeps state boys and girls golf Class 3A championships

JJ LaBella / For the Post-Gazette

Peters Township sweeps state boys and girls golf Class 3A championships

Peters Township pulled off a relatively rare feat when its boys and girls golf teams swept the WPIAL Class 3A titles last week at Cedarbrook.

They pulled off an even rarer triumph on Wednesday.

Peters Township became the first school to ever win the boys and girls PIAA Class 3A titles in the same year. The boys edged out District 1 representative LaSalle College by two strokes, while the girls slid past Manheim Township from District 3 by five shots at the Penn State Blue Course.

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It was also the first state title for each of the programs after each had three previous runner-up finishes.

 Butler High School’s Hunter Swidzinski digs out of a bunker during the WPIAL boys 3A golf championship at Valley Brook Country Club in Canonsburg on Monday, Oct. 2, 2023.  (Lucy Schaly/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Keith Barnes
PIAA golf championships: Butler’s Swidzinski wins state title on playoff, shoots 8-under-par 64 in second round

“That’s pretty crazy,” Peters Township coach Dave Kuhn said. “I’ve known just about all these kids from the early days of putting a club in their hand one way or another. For us to play the way we did across the board with everyone involved, it’s just awesome.”

Since team golf became a PIAA recognized sport, only one school, Sewickley Academy, had ever had its boys and girls teams win in the same year. That was in Class 2A in 2017.

For the Peters Township boys to win, it took a monster effort by the team’s starting five.

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Junior Colton Lusk, who shot a 6-under 138 and finished in a tie for fourth with Lower Merion’s Seiji Sasko in the two-day 36-hole individual final on Monday and Tuesday, blistered the course on Wednesday with a 7-under 65 to lead the Indians. Junor Griffin Hansberry also hit the clubhouse in the red with a 1-under 71.

“Colton is a special kid in a lot of ways and he’s just so committed and so focused on what we’re trying to accomplish,” Kuhn said. “He was 13-under for three days in State College and he’s just locked in.”

Peters Township shot so well on the day that the score it scratched – only the top four scores from the five competitors are counted in the final tally – was a 3-over 75 from Ryan Watterson. As a team, Lusk, Hansberry, Shane Williams (74) and Nick Haught (74) finished with a state-finals record 4-under 284.

As it turned out they needed every stroke.

LaSalle College, which has never won a state title and finished fourth in 2022, 12 shots behind Central Catholic, was no slouch. The Explorers, led by a 3-under 69 from Nolan Corcoran who didn’t even qualify for the individual finals, shot a 2-under 286 as a team with all four of their players within five strokes of each other.

For the Peters Township girls, who finished second by two strokes to Phoenixville in 2022, they were in a battle to the end. Ellie Benson came through with a 1-over 73, while Brooke Vowcheck shot and 6-over 78 and Sophia Severns carded an 80 for a 15-over 231 that edged out Manhein Township’s 20-over 236.

In girls golf, only the top three competitors count in the final tally.

There were almost three state champions to come out of the WPIAL. Belle Vernon, making its first appearance in the state championships, came up five strokes short in the Class 2A boys final, 301-306, against Devon Prep.

Keith Barnes: kbarnes.pg@gmail.com and Twitter @kbarnes_pghsprt

First Published: October 19, 2023, 7:22 p.m.

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Ellie Benson of Peters Township shot a team-best 73 to help the Indians win the PIAA Class 3A golf championship Wednesday at Penn State.  (JJ LaBella / For the Post-Gazette)
JJ LaBella / For the Post-Gazette
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