May 22, 2017
The Harker School in San Jose and Mission San Jose’s Aaron Chen came away with the titles and punched their tickets to the State Championship.
The Harker School shot a score of even-par 360, good enough to roll to a six-shot victory at Monday’s NCGA/CIF NorCal Boys’ Championship at par-72 Sierra View Country Club in Roseville. It’s the first NorCal title for The Harker School.
Leading the Eagles were Daulet Tuleubayev and Jin Kim, who each posted rounds of 71. Other The Harker School scores were Ryan Vaughan (72), Sandip Nirmel (72), Avi Kehmani (74) and Victor Shin (77).
Second place went to Mission San Jose at 366. Chen led Mission San Jose with a 67 that also earned him the Individual title. He’d card an eagle and six birdies to go against three bogeys. Also going low for Mission San Jose was Vijay Srinivasan, who had a 71.
Finishing in third place in the Team Championship, and also earning a trip to State was Archbishop Mitty, who came in at 369. Archbishop Mitty was paced by a 68 from Matt Lloyd, who carded six birdies and two bogeys. Lloyd would finish in second place in the Individual Championship.
Overall, nine individuals not on one of the qualifying teams earned spots into the State finals. Seven of the nine players advancing were Austin Murphy of Bellarmine (70), Max Ting of Menlo (70), Grant Fairbairn of College Preparatory Oakland (71), Armand Melemdez of Stevenson (71), Granada’s Nick McClendon (71), Eddie Lai of Bellarmine (71) and Alex Sun of Monte Vista (71). Lai won the Individual title in 2015 at Corral de Tierra CC in Salinas.
The final two spots came down to a seven-player playoff for two spots.Noah Norton and Noah Woolsey earned the final two spots after a playoff.
This year’s CIF State Boys’ Championship will tee off May 31 at Poppy Hills Golf Course.