WAYNESBORO—The Waynesboro Area Senior High School varsity golf team recently completed another fantastic season under coach Ryan Henderson.
After finishing second fiddle to a dominant Chambersburg team for years, Waynesboro won its third consecutive Mid-Penn Colonial Division championship,
“We advanced the most players into the postseason this year with five, and we represented our division at the Mid-Penn championships where we finished fourth out of eight teams,” said Henderson.
Ella Lowry, Dylan Byers and Tyler Fortney all made it to the District 3 championships. Lowry then made it to the PIAA state championships.
The first highlight of the season came when Waynesboro finished the regular season with a 25-0 record in five Mid-Penn meets.
The opening competition at Waynesboro Country Club offered a foreshadowing of what was to come when Waynesboro completed the meet with the top four individual finishers. Evan Stein carded a meet-low 73. He was followed by Byers with 75, Fortney with 80 and Lowry with 82.
As a team, Waynesboro turned in a score of 310, which was 42 strokes better than runner-up Greencastle-Antrim.
The scenery in the second divisional meet changed, but the result was the same. Waynesboro had three golfers finish with scores in the 70s at Greencastle en route to a 313 team score and another win over Greencastle-Antrim.
Byers and Stein completed the course with 75 and 76, respectively. Fortney finished with 77 and Lowry had an 83.
Waynesboro took a 10-0 record into Eagles Crossing in a meet hosted by Big Spring. As in the first two outings, the only thing really up for grabs was second place. This time, Shippensburg finished runner up to Waynesboro, as Waynesboro finished with a team score of 334 and Shippensburg with a distant second with 375.
Waynesboro once again had the top four finishers. Stein was tops with 81. Fortney was second with 83, Lowry was third with 84 and Byers was fourth with 86.
Waynesboro enjoyed its best action of the season at Chambersburg Country Club, completing the 18 holes with a season-best score of 324.
Fortney garnered medalist honors with a course-best 74. Byers was second with 81, while Stein was third with 83 and Lowry fifth with 86.
The final divisional meet was hosted by James Buchanan and played at Great Cove. If there was pressure on Waynesboro, the team didn’t let it show. Instead, each golfer played the course the best he or she could and came away with an undefeated season.
Waynesboro won the shortened contest as Fortney and Lowry shared medalist honors with scores of 37.
The 25-0 season came after last season’s 30-0 campaign. In the last three seasons, Waynesboro’s golf team has gone 83-2. The two losses were to Chambersburg.
Lowry’s postseason began with a second place showing in the Mid-Penn Championship.
Fortney tied for second place in the boys’ conference meet with a 76, while Byers tied for 14th and qualified for the District 3 competition.
This season was Lowry’s last to get to states. She followed up her runner-up at the conference championship with a third-place showing at districts. She shot 79 on day one and finished out with 82 on the second day for a total of 161.
