South’s hard work leads to a record-setting year

By Rich Fisher, Sports Writer
   The numbers surrounding the South Brunswick High girls’ golf team this season reveal how the Vikings did. They don’t reflect why.
   South Brunswick finished the campaign 13-1 and shared the inaugural Central Jersey league regular-season title with Hunterdon Central. The Vikings also won the first team crown in Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament history and placed fifth in the state tourney, where they were among only two teams with more than two qualifiers (they had three, along with Hunterdon Central).
   In addition, South Brunswick won the Bunker Hill Invitational, with junior Autumn Yun taking medallist honors with a 77 on the par-72 course, and established a school record for low team score with a 169 in a victory over West Windsor-Plainsboro North.
   ”Last year, we had no one qualify for states and this year we had three; that’s pretty impressive,” Vikings coach Joe Dougherty said. “It’s attributed to the work the girls did in the offseason. They’ve seen now that the work they put in from this point forward will pay dividends.”
   Yun and classmate Samantha Chromey and senior Alissa Perez qualified for the state tourney. In the GMCT, Yun finished second while Chromey and senior Meghan Jackson were one shot behind. Junior Yeni Choi, sophomore Colleen Jackson and seniors Priya Patel and Kaitlyn Brady also finished in the top 10 in the GMCT for the Vikings.
   Senior Emily Clark posted one of the team’s key scores in the Bunker Hill Invitational, finishing 13th with a 93. Junior Tatiana Kim fell just shy of posting enough qualifying scores to reach the state tourney and shot a 42 in a big dual match win over Hunterdon Central. Junior Catherine Rojvirat and sophomore Amy Zell gained valuable experience for the future.
   ”I still see room for improvement,” said Dougherty, who completed his third season as the Vikings’ coach. “I’m still learning as well and discovering new drills. We have to get better with our chipping and putting, that’s the bottom line.”
   The victory over Hunterdon Central, by 172-174, was another highlight to the campaign. South Brunswick snapped HC’s 25-match win streak.
   ”We were a joke to them in the past; whenever we played them, they knew they had it,” Chromey said. “To be in competition with them, and beat them, it was the greatest feeling. Our confidence was there from the beginning, which was why we were successful. We didn’t have one or two outstanding girls; we had six girls that could shoot in the 40s.”
   Dougherty tipped his cap to the seniors, in particular, for their approach to the game.
   ”There’s a lot those girls brought to the table,” Dougherty said. “They accepted me right off the bat three years ago when we were trying to shoot under 210. The chemistry amongst the seniors, they were there all the time.
   ”They’re all intelligent young women and had a lot of academic responsibilities they had to address. It was like they made more time in a day to get stuff done. They never cut a corner.”
   Dougherty also praised Mark McCabe and his staff at Bunker Hill, the Vikings’ home course, for their assistance to the program.
   ”They’ve got a business to run, but they’re always accommodating to us,” Dougherty said. “A lot of our success is because they are so cooperative to us.”