Penn-Trafford’s Nick Turowski, teammates win county boys golf title

By: Paul Schofield
Friday, September 10, 2021 | 9:14 PM

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Penn-Trafford sophomore Nick Turowski used a strong finish Friday to capture his first Westmoreland County Coaches’ Association boys golf tournament.

Turowski birdied his final two holes to shoot a 1-under-par 71 at the Latrobe Elks Golf Course to finish one shot better that Kiski School’s Alberto Calafat and two strokes better than Southmoreland’s Austin Goehring. He’s the first Penn-Trafford golfer since Kevin Loutzenhser to win the county tournament in 2011.

Kiski School’s Bob Burr was fourth with a 74 as he edged teammate Ruben Gamez, who also had a 74. Ties were broken by a scorecard tie-breaker.

Kiski School finished as the Class 2A winner with a 389 while Penn-Trafford took the Class 3A title with a 406.

Also receiving medals were Norwin’s Alex Graham (75), Franklin Regional’s Zach Abdallah (75), Derry’s Antonio Hauser (77), Franklin Regional’s Nolan Shilling (77) and Derry’s Hunter Jurica (77).

While Turowski finished strong and almost had a hole-in-one on No. 17, a 300-yard par 4, he wasn’t totally pleased with his round.

“It definitely could have been better,” Turowski said. “I’m not satisfied at all. It was a good round, but if you look back, you see how much better it could be. I just have to get back to work.”

Turowski said he didn’t see his shot on No. 17 because it’s a blind tee shot, but he said his dad told him it bounced short of the green and just rolled over the lip of the cup. The almost-ace came after Turowski had a double-bogey six on No. 16.

What does thrill Turowski is that he has a chance at winning two more county titles and he knows the record of 69, held by Latrobe’s Brady Pevarnik and Franklin Regional’s Palmer Jackson in 2018, is in his range.

“I was hoping to win four titles, but covid-19 canceled the tournament in 2020,” Turowski said. “The goal is to win it the next two seasons.”

Pevarnik was the latest two-time champion, winning in 2017 and 2018.

Turowski said the Latrobe Elks is a good test. The greens are tricky and the course is difficult.

“It will help me down the road in the WPIAL and PIAA tournaments,” Turowski said. “It’s a tough course and I kind of had it going until the double on No. 16. It was a good finish.

“It’s also nice to win as a team. We had a lot of players play well.”

Turowski teammates were Chase Crissman (79), Braedy Mastine (89), Jackson Kerrigan (85), David Newsom (87) and Colt Kaminski (84).

Franklin Regional was second in Class 3A with 412 followed by Norwin 418.

Derry finished with 418 points and was second behind Kiski School.

Paul Schofield is a TribLive reporter covering high school and college sports and local golf. He joined the Trib in 1995 after spending 15 years at the Daily Courier in Connellsville, where he served as sports editor for 14 years. He can be reached at pschofield@triblive.com.