Presque Isle captures PVC crown Searsport collects ‘C’ title; Nesin, Michaud take individual honors

LINCOLN – Thursday’s Penobscot Valley Conference championship golf tournament had plenty of surprises in store for the 23 teams and 116 individual golfers at JaTo Highlands Golf Course.

For everyone, it was the rock-hard greens resulting from an unusually dry fall that made approach shots nearly impossible to land anywhere near the holes.

For Booky Nesin, a senior at the host school, Mattanawcook Academy, it was discovering that his 7-over-par score of 79 was enough to give him the best score of the day.

For Foxcroft Academy, it was an uncharacteristically rough day that left the previously unbeaten Ponies out of next month’s state championship tournament field.

For Orono senior Chelsea Paul and Sumner of East Sullivan’s Ellen Thomas, it was finding out that they would have to play from the men’s (white) tees since they were part of their teams’ “starting” five-person lineup.

“This happened last year, but my coach argued about it and I was able to play from the reds,” said Paul. “But this year I just kind of went with it. I mean, I had to do it, so I kind of used it for motivation.”

It seemed to work. Paul shot a 109 and was one of six girls who qualified as individuals to play in the state championships at Natanis Golf Course in Vassalboro Oct. 6.

For Presque Isle coach Jim York, it was anything but a surprise that his Wildcats not only qualified for states, but did so by winning the Class B and overall PVC title on a Thursday that was hot, humid and sunny most of the day before changing to overcast skies by the end of play.

Well, maybe it was slightly surprising for the second-year coach.

“Team-wise for us, this beat my expectations,” York said through a wide grin. “Foxcroft was undefeated so that was very surprising. They just had a bad day today.

Searsport won the Class C PVC crown and made it look easy with a 347 – 20 strokes ahead of second-place Penquis of Milo. The Vikings were led by No. 2 man Tom Cameron, who carded an 83, followed by Casey Ashey (85), Spenser Brown (90), Nate Adams (89), and Dustin Smith (91).

The veteran Wildcats were led by Matt Talbot, who carded an 80.

“I started off kind of rocky with three straight bogeys,” Talbot said. “On the back nine, I was pretty consistent after starting with a triple bogey and then eagling the next one.”

Talbot was followed by sophomore Steve Ford (86), fellow seniors Tyler St. Pierre (87) and Nick Gallant (90), and junior John Umphrey (91).

That was enough to put Presque Isle two strokes ahead of 2006 PVC champ Houlton, which had a 345 behind solid efforts from brothers Porter Gervais (84) and Ian Gervais (85), Dylan Flewelling (84), Greg Foster (94) and Matt Rush (92).

Shiretowners coach Bruce Nason was pleasantly surprised.

“About a week ago, my kids went into a funk and were not playing well. It was mostly mental stuff like not paying attention to the yardage or not getting yourself lined up. … Just simple little things you forget to pay attention to,” Nason said. “Today they buckled down, did the job and qualified.

“They’ve come together well and worked hard to get here. They deserved to go, but they definitely had to earn it.”

The two other Class B teams to qualify for states were Central of Corinth with a 357 and Mattanawcook with a 360. The other Class C team to qualify besides Searsport and Penquis was Piscataquis of Guilford with a 369.

The Lynx edged Mount Desert Island for the final PVC Class B slot in states, thanks in large part to the play of Nesin, who overcame back-to-back double bogeys on the back nine.

“There were so many people playing, it was slow going and we had about six groups bunched up on one par 3,” he said. “After that, I got out of my rhythm. I hit drives in the woods on 17 and 18, but I recovered.”

Nesin, who has never before qualified for states as an individual, credited his knowledge of the “home course” and playing it safe.

“I know how it plays so I knocked everything down and made my putts,” he explained. “Normally, my long game is my strength. I hit off the tee better than I have in awhile, but today it was more that I just didn’t miss anything, putts-wise.”

Although she didn’t show up in her team’s scoring column Amy Michaud didn’t miss much. The senior Wildcat shot a 44 on the front nine and a 45 on the back to win the overall girls individual PVC title.

“I was so nervous, but this is one of my best rounds all year,” said Michaud, who has qualified for states all four years. “My putting was off today and it didn’t really come around for me until the last couple holes. Luckily, my drives were just out of this world.”