COLLINS – Fredonia’s Marina Kessler earned a trip to compete in the New York State Public High School Girls Golf Championships by finishing ninth with a 106 at the state qualifier held at Gowanda Country Club on Wednesday.

“Marina shot a 54, 52,” Fredonia coach Alex Conti said, referencing Kessler’s front- and back-nine scores. “And it was so cold Wednesday. Other than the first three golfers, who are year-round golfers, everyone had a pretty good struggle.

“The sixth-best golfer shot a 115 and the ninth-best shot a 122,” Conti continued. “So for Marina to come in with a 106, it was good. She left a couple strokes out there, but who doesn’t? We all come in knowing we could have done better.”

Fellow Lady Hillbilly Kirsta Wheelock earned the first alternate spot with 109, and Conti is hoping she’ll have a chance to compete at the state tournament.

“There’s a chance,” Conti said. “And she’s very deserving and she played pretty well. The 52 on the front was good and the 59 on the back … She missed some shots, she miss-hit a few, but I hope she can get a chance.”

Also for Fredonia, Maggie Militello carded a 129 and Maddy Contiguglia shot a 139.

“It was a nice finish for them,” Conti said. “(Maddy) wasn’t disappointed in her game, which was nice. She had some struggles on a couple of holes, but all-in-all, she had some pretty decent scores out there, same with Maggie. She greatly improved on her putting, so that was nice.”

Meanwhile, Southwestern’s Marissa Delmonaco has felt perfectly at home playing in the Section VI Girls Golf Championship since her first season on the tees for the Lady Trojans, and Wednesday’s qualifying tournament was no exception to the rule.

Delmonaco fired an exceptional round of 74, tying Chelsea Dantonio of Lancaster in regulation before falling to the four-time defending champion on the third hole of a sudden-death playoff to take second place overall.

That low round has the Southwestern junior returning to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Championships, which will be held on June 12-14 on the links of The College Golf Course at SUNY Delhi.

“She played very well,” said Southwestern coach Mark Sleggs. “She was paired with Chelsea Dantonio from Lancaster, and this is (Dantonio’s) sixth trip to the states and she has won the last four sectionals. I was really happy with how (Delmonaco) played. I thought that she could go and contend this year and she did exactly that.”

Gowanda certainly offered Wednesday’s field of 27 some challenges to overcome, with difficult pin placements often set near the fronts of greens and on the wrong side of swales.

“It’s hilly and the greens are very fast. The pin placements today were very challenging for the girls,” Sleggs noted. “They were on downslopes and more often than not were toward the front of the greens, so if you went over the flagstick, you were looking at a three-putt.”

In a season that has seen consistent improvement for Delmonaco, the junior’s emphasis on her short game paid big dividends against the fast-rolling Gowanda greens.

While serving as the marshal on No. 17, Sleggs noticed several excellent tee shots fail to score well.

“I even saw some girls (Wednesday) that drove the ball really well, and you say to yourself ‘oh my gosh they can hit the ball well off the tee.’ But it’s just a matter of their short game and their irons and even their putting,” Sleggs said.

The conditions on Wednesday also favored Jamestown’s Emily Isaacson, who will be heading to SUNY Delhi for the first time after her round of 95, which was good enough for fifth place.

The junior has seen her handicap drop significantly this year, thanks to the help of her junior golf program and working with Chautauqua Golf Club professional Troy Moss.

“Last year she was around a 50-52 average and now she is a around a 43,” said Jamestown coach Phil Mead. “She has really put the time in and she deserved going to the states this year. She has honed in on her chipping and putting.”

Fellow Jamestown junior Lucy Ellis just missed out on the nine-player field that will be traveling to Delhi with her round of 113.

“She has worked pretty hard and is very athletic and she understands that the game is just putting little pieces together at this point,” Mead said.

The Lady Red Raiders were also represented by eighth-grader Sarah Pilliteri, who fired a 125 and still has plenty of years in front of her to improve while Lauren Hirliman of Southwestern finished her day with a 121.

Looking forward to the NYSPHSAA tournament, Sleggs expects his standout junior to continue her superb season on a course that requires a variety of shots to succeed.

“It requires every club in the bag,” Sleggs said. “You are going to have all kinds of shots. There are elevated tees and elevates greens, changes of elevation and I would say half the time you are going to have uneven lies.”

State Qualifiers: Chelsea Dantonio (Lancaster) 74, Marissa Delmonaco (Southwestern) 74, Sarah Godfrey (Depew) 76, Alexis Kim (Clarence) 94, Emily Isaacson (Jamestown) 95, Elaina Lopez (Clarence) 99, Samantha Gaffney (Williamsville East) 106, Madison Cooper (Clarence) 106, Marina Kessler (Fredonia) 106, (alternate) Krista Wheelock (Fredonia) 109.

Final Scores: Simone Riter (Williamsville East) 110, Sara Armstrom (Williamsville East) 110, Julia Conroy (Clarence) 111, Jessica Mucci (Williamsville North) 111, Jersey Phillips (Depew) 113, Lucy Ellis (Jamestown) 113, Amanda Gaffney (Williamsville East) 115, Macie Attea (Clarence) 118, Olivia Rinaldo (Williamsville North) 120, Lauren Hirliman (Southwestern) 121, Liz Markley (Williamsville South) 122, Alex Mucci (Williamsville North) 125, Sarah Pilliteri (Jamestown) 125, Maggie Militello (Fredonia)129, Sam Puma (Williamsville North) 133, Heather Hoden (Southwestern) 134, Maddy Contiguglia (Fredonia) 139.