By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
EXETER – Holy Redeemer ultimately won a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 2A golf title in 2013 and the Royals’ potential was evident right from the traditional opener to the Wyoming Valley Conference season, the Tryba Preseason Tournament at Fox Hill Country Club.
Mariano Medico excelled in the tournament throughout his high school career and his senior year was no exception.
Medico repeated as individual champion and helped the Royals run away with the team title.
On his way to a year of playing National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I golf at Monmouth University before transferring to Syracuse University to concentrate on his academics, Medico established himself as one of the state’s top high school and junior golfers.
Medico shot even-par, 71, then correctly assessed part of what the performance meant.
“It’s a good tournament to sort of feel out the competition, feel out where we are on the team level,” said Medico, who placed third in the Tryba as a freshman and second as a sophomore before claiming his two individual titles. “With the high expectations that we have as a team this year, for me it was to see what we are up against in the conference.”
Holy Redeemer was 17 strokes better than second-place Crestwood, 298-315.
The WVC and the Tryba Tournament use the top four individual scores to create a team score. If it used five, the Royals would have been even more dominant. They featured 5 of the 11 players to score in the 70s in the tournament.
Medico overcame a triple bogey on 7 with four birdies and just one bogey. He made it back to even par at 16 by recovering from a hooked tee shot to punch out from the trees 100 yards away all the way to the front of the green. From there, he made a 25-footer for a birdie-3.
“That was really big for me,” said Medico, a two-time Golf Association of Philadelphia junior championship who was a fifth-place finisher in the state individual tournament as a junior and went on to place sixth in 2013.
Teammate Andrew Crossin finished second with a 73. Chase Makowski finished tied for fifth with a 76.
