RIVER VALE – Joe Furlong rolled in a 12-foot putt for birdie on his final hole to punctuate Midland Park’s dominating day in what has been an outstanding season.
The junior had the best individual score and helped the Panthers produce the best team total at Monday’s eighth annual North Jersey Interscholastic Conference Golf Championship.
Furlong had a stellar back nine and won the Division 2 title with a 4-over-par 74 at Valley Brook Golf Course. Midland Park carded a shoot-four, count-four score of 318 to repeat after finishing 21 shots ahead of Dwight-Englewood.
“Hopefully we can take this good score and continue it into states and counties,” Furlong said, “and then hopefully qualify for the next round of states.”
Midland Park is a contender to win next week’s North Group 1 and Bergen County Group 1-2 tournaments after carding a 318 that represented the second-best score in NJIC history. The record is a 296 in 2012 by Pascack Hills, which has since ascended to the large-school Big North Conference.
Furlong shot 2-under 33 on the back nine for a 74 that was three shots better than Dwight-Englewood’s Jesse Goodman. Furlong birdied the par-4 15th with a 12-foot putt and the par-4 18th with that 12-footer.
“Joey’s 33 is a remarkable 33,” said Midland Park coach Dick Bennett, “and for us to be the second-best score in [NJIC] history puts us in some rarified company.”
All four Panthers placed in the top nine in Division 2. Junior Mikey Folignani shot 78 and was fourth via match of cards. Senior Corey O’Keefe was fifth with 80 and junior Kyle Sansone ninth with 86.
“It was great because we had just lost and we kind of got humbled,” said Furlong, referring to Thursday’s nine-hole loss to Dwight-Englewood, 169-170. “And we came out better and put up a really good score.”
Glen Rock was significantly better than last year in repeating as Division 1 champion with a 331 that was 40 strokes better than Leonia. Senior Min Jun Choi won the individual crown with 75.
“Everything went as I thought it would,” said Choi, who finished seven strokes ahead of Eastern Christian senior Noah Hagedorn. “No surprises. It was just a well-rounded game.”
Glen Rock’s quartet finished among the top seven. Senior Spencer Jeffries shot 82 and was third via match of cards. Leo Taras tied for fourth with 85, and senior Sagar Ohri tied for seventh with 89.
“We definitely played well today,” said Glen Rock coach Dan Morgan. “Twenty strokes better than last year, and it’s always nice to see improvement. Good balance between the four players, and we’ll hopefully figure out a way to save some strokes for states and see how we do there.”
NJIC Championship
At Valley Brook GC, River Vale
Par: 70; Yardage: Boys: 5,751; Girls: 5,119
DIVISION 1
TEAM SCORES
Glen Rock 331
Leonia 371
Eastern Christian 424
Ridgefield 452
Hasbrouck Heights 517
Hawthorne 567
INDIVIDUALS
Min Jun Choi, Glen Rock 75
Noah Hagedoorn, Eastern Christian 82
Spencer Jeffries, Glen Rock 82
Leo Taras, Glen Rock 85
Khine Nunu, Leonia 85
Sabrina Jeon, Leonia 88
Sagar Ohri, Glen Rock 89
Piper Kim, Leonia 89
Clay Sietsma, Eastern Christian 94
John Kirk, Ridgefield 107
Junha Lim, Leonia 109
Christian Lee, Ridgefield 109
Steve Han, Ridgefield 110
John Wagner, Hasbrouck Heights 115
Antonio Grecco, Hasbrouck Heights 120
Bilal Meshanni, Hawthorne 121
Bobby Wu, Eastern Christian 123
Joe Ferreri, Hasbrouck Heights 124
Chase DeJong, Eastern Christian 125
Sarah Jeon, Ridgefield 126
Anthony Ramos, Hawthorne 148
Kaitlyn Melendez, Hawthorne 148
Ryan Alves, Hawthorne 150
Jake Schloemann, Hasbrouck Heights 158
DIVISION 2
TEAM SCORES
Midland Park 318
Dwight-Englewood 339
Saddle River Day 356
Park Ridge/Emerson 364
Cresskill 389
Waldwick 470
New Milford 474
Palisades Park 481
INDIVIDUALS
Joe Furlong, Midland Park 74
Jesse Goodman, Dwight-Englewood 77
Jake Zage, Saddle River Day 78
Mikey Folignani, Midland Park 78
Corey O’Keefe, Midland Park 80
Harry Kim, Cresskill 83
Erik Degelmann, Park Ridge/Emerson 84
Jake Khorozian, Dwight-Englewood 85
Kyle Sansone, Midland Park 86
Justin Yee, Cresskill 87
Eric Hahn, Dwight-Englewood 87
Scott Vandanassem, Saddle River Day 87
Brenden Marrero, Park Ridge/Emerson 89
Emma Lee, Dwight-Englewood 90
Erik Dunn, Waldwick 92
Zack Mark, Park Ridge/Emerson 93
Shaan Andalkar, Saddle River Day 95
Dylan Besserer, Saddle River Day 96
Russell Johnson, New Milford 98
Zach Papataros, Park Ridge/Emerson 98
Edward Kim, Palisades Park 103
Uriel Chung, Cresskill 105
Sean Johnson, New Milford 105
David Cho, Palisades Park 112
Kate Rostkowski, New Milford 113
Max Wilson, Cresskill 114
Max Cohen, Waldwick 117
Aaron Baker, Waldwick 122
Yunnah Kang, Palisades Park 132
Tae Hyun Kim, Palisades Park 134
Chris Youngclaus, Waldwick 139
Rajvi Patel, New Milford 158