Bel Air's Matt Hottman and Fallston's Brittany Kemen won Maryland District VII golf championships at Ruggles Golf Course at Aberdeen Proving Ground Tuesday.
Hottman shot an even par round of 70 to lead all players and his Bel Air team to the UCBAC and District Championship. Kemen, meanwhile, shot 86 to lead the female competitors. Both will play in next month's Maryland State Tournament at the University of Maryland Golf Course.
In addition, seven other male players and two more female players also qualified as individuals, while Bel Air and C. Milton Wright will play as teams after a 1-2 finish among Class 3A-4A teams and Perryville won the 1A-2A team crown.
Bel Air won the title with a 306, five strokes better than CMW's 311. In addition to Hottman's low round, Nick Loiodice added a 73 and Sam Foss carded a 79. Tyler Newton rounded out the Bobcats four-player score with 84.
Ricky Scheeler paced CMW with a round of 76, while Stephen Rappe and Quentin Cummings each shot 78. Rounding out the Mustangs scoring was Shane Harper's 79. CMW teammate Jake Fidler's score didn't count, but he shot a respectable round of 80.
In Perryville's win, the Panthers shot 338 to nip Patterson Mill's 340. Rising Sun was a close third with 345.
In Hottman's win, the junior flirted with under par scoring before double bogeying his 17th hole on the day, the tricky, dog-leg left par 4 second hole.
"I shot 33 on the back nine," Hottman said. "I made a lot of birdies on the back nine."
In order to post a par or better score, something had to be going right for the junior who also qualified for last year's state tourney.
"Definitely my wedges and my putting," Hottman said about what went well. "I made a lot of putts, I made almost everything inside of 10 feet."
In all, Hottman made six birdies, including three over a four-hole stretch at holes 15 through 18. "I went birdie, birdie, bogey, birdie on holes 15 through 18," Hottman said.
If there was a struggle in his game, Hottman noted it was his driver. "I didn't hit my driver that well. I tried to play it safe off the tee and keep it in the fairways because I was hitting my irons so well," Hottman said. As for winning the title Hottman said, "It feels nice, I've only won like a summer tournament once, so it feels good. Hopefully, I can do it again next year."
Of the other seven male qualifiers, four were from Harford County. Patterson Mill's Eric Langrehr leads the pack, shooting a runner-up best score of 72. Huskies teammate Mike Ryan also qualified with 77.
Fallston's Max Bradley and Harford Tech's Noah Davis also qualified, each shooting 78, the maximum total allowed. Rising Sun's Chris Stenta, Bo Manor's Nick Geracimos and Elkton's Wesley Price all shot 78 to qualify as well.
In addition to Kemen, Bel Air's Nicole Haggerty qualified by shooting the runner-up score of 89 and North East's Indiana Jones was the last player in with 91, the maximum score for female players.