International Junior Masters Thursday AM Results

Your story of the day is made when local boy makes good. In the case of Marc Holzhauer of Williamsville, all he had to do was upset the defending champion, Will Thomson. In an interview with the Buffalo News on Wednesday, Thomson acknowledged the vagaries and uncertainty of match play, in an eerie foreshadowing of his loss to Holzhauer. The defending champion didn’t go quietly, however, taking the resurgent Holzhauer to the 17th hole before succumbing. The other local boy in the Championship flight, Ben Reichert of East Amherst, also advanced to the afternoon quarterfinals via a 1-up victory over Andrew Sciaretta of Connecticut. If Holzhauer and Reichert advance through the round of eight, they will meet in the semifinals on Friday morning.


Marc Holzhauer	Ben Reichert

In the Consolation bracket, Williamsville’s Gregory Sibick secured a 1-up victory over Sam Meek of Ontario to move into the afternoon quarterfinals against Eric Shea, also of Ontario. Matthew Genaway of Darien Center fell to Zachary Ford of Pennsylvania in the first round, 6 & 5. In the Gold flight, 2014 Championship semifinalist Nolan Ditcher of Randolph was the only western New York product to advance. He did so with a 2 & 1 conquering of Dave Sexton of Ohio. Chris Yustin (East Amherst), David Hanes (Elma) and Andrew Monahan (Buffalo) all lost their opening tilts.


Gregory Sibick	Nolan Ditcher

The Silver and Bronze flights also featured a number of area golfers in morning competition. In the former, Jake Roach of East Aurora and Brad Belote of Lancaster advanced with respective 1 up and 7 & 5 triumphs. Ben Brason of East Aurora lost, 5 & 4, in his initial match. In the latter flight, Thomas Elia of Buffalo advanced through the morning round, but was forced to withdraw from his quarterfinal match. John Dantonio and Paul Goszewski, teammates at St. Francis high school, won early bouts to arrange a meeting in the quarters. Ethan Hejna of Buffalo, and Jack Devic and Alex Prise of Orchard Park all were defeated in opening, bronze-flight matches.