With the Greater Middlesex Conference boys and girls tournaments to be contested on the same day at different venues, female members of the Wardlaw-Hartridge coed golf team faced a unique history-making decision.
Wardlaw-Hartridge’s top four golfers are girls. The quartet is equally capable of becoming the first team in school history to claim a GMC title in any sport through its entrance as prohibitive favorites in the girls tournament or of competing alongside a male classmate in the boys tournament with a legitimate chance to win the championship.
“As a smaller school, Wardlaw-Hartridge has to choose which works best for them,” NJSIAA President Elaine McGrath said. “The girls are key players for that program and they are really exceptional golfers, so I’m glad Wardlaw-Hartridge allows them to have the choice of what tournament they want to play in.”
The awesome foursome of Grace Lu, Jenelle Valera, Sydney Kuo and Mia Sutton have entered two major tournaments for girls, winning the Lady Bombers Invitational and placing second at the Red Devil Classic, making the Rams one of the top girls teams in the state, one that realistically would run away with the GMC girls golf championship.
The quartet has been joined by at least one male teammate to compete during the conference regular season against boys teams, rolling to an unblemished 10-0 record, positioning itself to win the White Division championship while beating opponents by an average of more than 40 strokes (two of the teams the Rams have faced each feature one female golfer).
Lu, Valera, Kuo and Sutton have almost exclusively recorded the top four scores for Wardlaw-Hartridge in those boys matches, combining to post some exceptional rounds this season including a 145 at Plainfield West Nine, a 163 at Ash Brook, a 166 at Colonia Country Club and a 169 at Tamarack.
As a result of its performance, Wardlaw-Hartridge is expected to receive a top four seed and an automatic berth for this year’s GMC boys championships, which will be contested May 16 at a site to be determined.
Wardlaw-Hartridge golf coach Jim Howard said his girl-dominated coed team, which features a trio ranked among the Top 25 female golfers in the state and a fourth who will likely join that group before season’s end, opted to play in the boys tournament.
“I just look at it as something that would make headlines if we were to win,” Howard said. “It would make people take a second look at the article. It would be great for us and would be something that would put the GMC on the map. That’s what I told the girls.”
Kuo, who was the Home News Tribune’s Girls Golfer of the Year last season, and Sutton finished first and second, respectively, shooting a 37 and 39 at Concordia (par 35) in last year’s GMC girls golf tournament. With the addition of freshmen sensations Lu and Valera, Wardlaw-Hartridge has a formidable quartet.
“I think if they have a normal round they are going to be in the top four or five teams there, but if they have an outstanding day they will challenge for the championship,” East Brunswick head coach Bo Henning said of the Rams.
“I don’t see (Wardlaw-Hartridge’s participation) as being anything other than they have some really skilled golfers. (Four) just happen to be girls.”
South River Athletics Director Carl Buffalino, who chairs the conference’s boys golf committee, said a team of four females and one male entering the boys tournament is unprecedented. Logan D’Amore, one of the conference’s best boys swimmers who Howard said recently made an official visit to the University of Pennsylvania, will round out the Wardlaw-Hartridge coed quintet during the GMC boys golf tournament.
“I think it shows where Title IX has come and how far female athletics have come where they can kind of compete on an even level with the boys,” Buffalino said of Wardlaw-Hartridge’s female quartet. “I think it’s a great thing for golf and high school sports in general.”
The girls are allowed to compete “one tee forward,” which Howard said “does not make much of a difference” or give his female golfers an advantage over the boys.
“Depending on the course, sometimes it’s nothing,” Howard said. “If it’s 25 yards, it’s a lot. It’s usually not that much, maybe a 5-, 10- or 15-yard difference.”
Buffalino said he expects the conference’s boys golf community, which has enjoyed playing alongside several gifted female golfers for the last couple of years, to fully embrace the four Wardlaw-Hartridge girls competing in this year’s boys tournament.
“They are going to be accepted, just like (others) have been for the last two years or so,” Buffalino said. “This is not a first-time thing with these girls. The boys coaches fully respect what these girls have done.”
Wardlaw-Hartridge Athletics Director Karl Miran said his school in recent years has not had enough golfers of one gender to form separate boys or girls teams, so the Rams competed as a coed squad against boys, ensuring student-athletes of both genders an opportunity for team competition.
“The ultimate goal is to let kids compete and learn through sports,” Miran sad. “I think that’s what we are doing.”
Because the girls, as members of a coed team, do not compete during the regular season against girls teams, Wardlaw-Hartridge is ineligible under NJSIAA regulations to gain entry as a team to the girls state tournament. Lu, Velara, Kuo and Sutton can, however, compete as individuals in the girls state tournament, assuming all qualify. The awesome foursome has already proved it can compete with the state’s elite, besting the top-ranked Montgomery girls team in an invitational earlier this year.
“When it’s all over,” Miran said of the girls state golf tournament, “we can compare our scores to the team that wins the trophy and maybe have a mythical or virtual champion, if we want to call it that ourselves. It just won’t be official.”
Howard said his female golfers are all exceptional students and athletes who work tirelessly year-round on the course and in the classroom.
“What’s really good about this group is every one of them has been the low scorer in at least one match,” Howard said regarding the competitive balance of his girls. “They are always striving to do better and never satisfied with their score.”
Henning said female golfers have made tremendous strides since he was the first to coach a girl in the GMC boys tournament, that being Tracy Dachisen (nee Brush), who placed among the Top 5 individually in the 1989 championship.
“We’ve had some girls in the state who would compete for Top 10 or even the overall (boys) championship statewide,” Henning said. “That’s how good some of the girls have been.”
Dachisen, who went on to play for four years on the women’s golf team at the University of South Florida, was impressed to learn about the success of Wardlaw-Hartridge’s female quartet.
“I think it’s wonderful for the game of golf and the growth it’s made over the years,” said Dachisen, who is currently director of volunteers for the Florida State Golf Association. “To have the opportunity to play with the guys (three decades ago), I welcomed it. I had my share of criticism and a little bit of torment at times. You take it out on the golf course and show them that way. That’s how you prove yourself. You’ve got to earn the respect.”
“To be able to play (the sport) and play it well and the friendships that I’ve made and the lifelong experiences I’ve had through golf is something I would never change in a million years.”
Dachisen said she looks forward to seeing how Wardlaw-Hartridge performs as the first almost all-girl golf team in the GMC boys tournament.
“It’s your ability, not (your gender),” Dachisen said. “They’ve proven themselves as golfers in a sport that they love. I wish them all the best. I hope golf takes them to great places.”
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