GREEN TOWNSHIP – Adding the icing to their SBAAC American Division championship cake, the Wilmington High School boys golf team won the final nine-hole divisional match Thursday at Whiteoak Golf Course.

Led by Jack Murphy’s 2-under par 33, Wilmington had a season best SBAAC score of 181 and officially claimed the American Division championship.

“Going in to the year, we were nowhere on the radar for being a (league) favorite,” WHS fifth-year coach Phil Gilmore said. “We had the player of the year returning but that was it. I had no idea who my other five players would be. I had no expectations going in and that’s probably the best thing that could have happened.”

Wilmington won the overall league title over runnerup New Richmond 1532 to 1611.

Clinton-Massie finished fifth overall. Kaleb Hughes posted the low score for the Falcons with a 51.

“I was very pleased to see (sophomore) Kaleb Hughes and (freshman) Ethan Johnson make second team all league,” CM coach Phil Larrick said. “They are the two hardest workers on the team and it is good to see their extra effort paid off.”

Murphy was again American Division player of the year. He was 58 strokes better than the runnerup.

“Jack won by a huge amount,” Gilmore said. “He’s three quarters of our lead. We knew Jack was going to play well no matte what. The kids had confidence in him and they knew they had to just put three solid scores behind him.”

After leading the league twice last year only to fall to Clinton-Massie in the end, the first league title for Gilmore in his tenure was especially sweet.

“Having a lead twice, then losing it both times, that hurt,” he said. “We got off to a quick seven stroke lead (this season). Our mentality was we just need to build on the lead each time out.”

Zane Carey earned first team honors in the league. After struggling through four holes on Thursday, Carey rallied with a strong finish. Brendan Powell had a season-best round of 45.

SUMMARY

Sept 20 2018

@Whiteoak Golf Course

Team scores

Wilmington 181 Western Brown 191 New Richmond 198 Batavia 203 Clinton-Massie 221 Goshen NA

Wilmington (181) Jack Murphy 33 Zane Carey 51 Brendan Powell 45 Ely Schumacher 57 Braydon Conley 52

Clinton-Massie (221) Kaleb Hughes 51 Ethan Johnson 54 Clay Carroll 56 Michael Moritz 60