JAMESTOWN – There are high goals going into the upcoming season for the Jamestown Community College golf team as they return three golfers that have competed for the Jayhawks in some capacity over the past two seasons.
"It's nice to have veterans out on the course," said head coach George Sisson. "There's a difference in seeing the course for a second time compared to seeing it for the first time coming off the van."
JCC returns Traden Gray (Frewsburg, NY/Frewsburg HS), Noah Adams (Mayville, NY/Chautauqua Lake Central), and Anthony Gullo (Jamestown, NY/Jamestown HS) after taking a year off.
Gray put together a fine freshman season a year ago, finishing with a pair of top-five finishes including a first-place finish at the Jayhawk Invitational at Chautauqua Golf Club. In regionals, Gray was named to the NJCAA Region 3 All-Region team with a fifth-place finish after the two-day event.
Two seasons ago, Gullo led the Jayhawk team with three first-place finishes including the Tompkins Cortland CC Invitational, SUNY Adirondack CC Invitational, and Jefferson CC Invitational. At regionals, Gullo finished in fourth place to earn NJCAA Region 3 All-Region honors.
"Traden and Anthony have shown what they can do on these courses that we will compete at this season," Sisson said. "Noah showed tremendous growth over the past season where he was bale to shave 20 strokes off his game so it will be nice to have these guys back."
Joining the returners this season will be freshmen Austyn Cummings (Warren, PA/Warren Area HS), Brady Fye (Lakewood, NY/Southwestern High), Athanasios Bakas (North Riding, Johannesburg, South Africa/The King's College and Preparatory School), and Maxim Johnson (Johannesburg, South Africa/King Edwards VII School).
"Austyn is an older guy coming in who has golfed in leagues over the past few years but will be his first time competing at this level," said Sisson. "Brady has some distance and has shown us some good things in the preseason. Anthanasios competed this past fall in some tournaments and has shown to be a formable golfer to go along with Maxim who has also shown to strike the ball very well for us."
The Jayhawks will start the season at the Tompkins Cortland CC Invitational (April 14th) and Onondaga CC Invitational (April 15th) to kickoff the season. The second week of the season will consist of three golf outings at Mohawk Valley CC Invitational (April 21st), SUNY Adirondack CC Invitational (April 22nd), and the Hudson Valley CC Invitational (April 23rd).
JCC will host the Jayhawk Invitational on April 28th and then travel to the Niagara County Community College Invitational the following day. The Jayhawks wrap up the regular season at the Jefferson Community College Invitational (May 5th) and Herkimer College Invitational (May 7th).
"We have as good of a team in my estimate as we've had in recent memory," Sisson said. "Not only do we have guys that can compete individually, but we also have guys that will make us competitive on the team side."
After the regular season, the Jayhawks will look to the postseason and will compete at the NJCAA Region 3 Championships on May 15th-16th at Glen Oak Golf Course hosted by Niagara County Community College. There, JCC will prepare for the NJCAA Division III Men's Golf National Championships at Chautauqua Golf Club from June 6th-9th, an event that the institution has hosted since the 1999 season.
"Our nationals are one of two golf championships that have a 72-hole tournament," said Sisson. "With us traveling and paying back-to-backs or in some cases three days in a role will help build us up for the end of the year."
For nationals, the Jayhawks get the automatic qualifier for being the host institution, but coach Sisson sees a different mentality in his golfers for this season.
"It's nice that we get the automatic qualifier but our mentality this year will be to compete week in and week out. I really believe that we have guys that can challenge for medalist every week but also be towards the top in the team scoring as well."
