Marathon coach Mary Coleman-Sayer’s team has grown exponentially this season, and it has amped up the competition for the Golfin’ Dolphins.
“This week our golf team picked up two team wins for a total of three team wins for the season. This is the most team wins that we have had in my four-year tenure as the coach,” she said.
Coleman-Sayer credited some of the team’s success to the consistency in her seniors, Mason Thornton and Leo Mendez. Additionally, Marathon’s younger athletes have been coming alive as the season progresses.
“Sophomore Roco Piscetello is one of the top three scoring leaders out of six matches,” she said. “Freshman Luca Picariello and eighth-grader Emmett Merryman have been honing their skills and have scored well in the last two matches.”
Marathon won both of last week’s matches, beating Coral Shores on Marathon’s home course, 238-271, on Sept. 9, then outshooting both county rivals at Ocean Reef on Sept. 12, where the Fins won by a single stroke with a score of 201. Key West was in third place with 205, making the margin razor-thin among all of Monroe County’s teams and keeping the competition strong.
The Sept. 9 match in Marathon was won overall by Key West’s Peyton Zubieta. Zubieta birdied on hole six to finish at 39, just 3 above par on the challenging course. Marathon’s Mason Thornton and Key West’s Geo Twyman tied for second, shooting 43s. Thornton had a birdie on hole seven while Twyman picked one up on hole six. Marathon’s Leo Mendez and Roco Piscetello tied for fourth with Emmett Merryman coming in right behind them. Aiden Althouse of Coral Shores was seventh with a trio of Fins – Luca Picariello, Caden Pitcher and Cullen Coleman-Sayer – taking the final top-10 spots.
The girls were led by Key West junior Claudia Steling, who shot a 48 at Florida Keys Country Club for the win. Behind her were teammates Lexi Finigan and Charlize Lopez. Justice Lee Isom pulled through for Marathon to take fourth, and prevent a Key West sweep. Breanna Santana finished in fifth place for the Lady Conchs.
Three days later, the teams met again at Ocean Reef’s Hammock course where Steling won again, this time shooting a 44. Coral Shores’ Gabby Thomas and Key West’s Charlize Lopez tied for second place, shooting 52. Justice Lee Isom and Makenna Haines, both of Marathon, were fourth and fifth, respectively, and the Lady Conchs’ Monica Bueno and Breanna Santanna rounded out the competition.
Steling and Thomas have both shot tremendous rounds over the past few seasons and their names are consistently on top of the leaderboard. Inching their way up are a pair of Lady Conchs who have impressed head coach Josh Bassett lately.
“Monica Bueno and Charlize Lopez are really stepping their games up and the progress has been a pleasure to watch,” he said. “This team really knows the meaning of resilience.”
The resilience Bassett mentioned came in clutch at the boys competition at Ocean Reef.
“The match at Ocean Reef was a bit of a roller coaster for the team,” he said. “There were kids who shot the best they have ever shot and then we had some who struggled to find a rhythm. Honestly, that’s golf – some days you win and some days the course wins. For those who had a great day, we need to work to build on that success and for the others, we will work to get that round out of their mind and move on to the next match with new focus.”
The individual scores, like the team scores, were decided by just a few strokes at Ocean Reef. Coral Shores’ Preston Carroll won the boys competition, shooting a 44 on his home course and finishing 8 above par. One stroke behind was Thornton, followed by a tie for third between Zubieta and Piscetello, who both shot 46. Key West’s Jackson Barroso was fifth, shooting a 48, and Marathon’s Emmett Merryman was sixth with a finishing score of 49. Picariello tied for seventh with Key West’s Andrew Bassett and Coral Shores’ Derek Ramos and 10th place was another three-way tie among Coral Shores’ Donovan Thiery and Aiden Althouse and Marathon’s Mendez.
Photos by BARRY GAUKEL/Keys Weekly.
