Aptos High senior golfer Max Meltzer fired a 2-over Par 73 in Tuesday’s Central Coast Section Regional round at the Laguna Seca Golf Ranch in Monterey to advance to section championships for the third straight season.
Meltzer, the second-place finisher at last week’s Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League Individual Championships, finished in a tie for eighth with three other golfers: Serra’s Michael Savin, Menlo High’s Max Ting and Bellarmine’s Berk Harvey.
The CCS Championships are scheduled for May 16 back at the Laguna Seca Golf Ranch.
Palo Alto High’s Ahmed Ali had the lowest score of the day, carding a 64. Bellarmine’s Eddie Lai (65), the defending CCS champion, and San Benito High’s Brad Sparrer (69) followed him in second and third, respectively, while Bellarmine’s Austin Murphy and Valley Christian’s Caleb Shetler tied for fourth (71) and Stevenson’s Robert You and Bellarmine’s Rajvir Bedi tied for sixth (72).
Bellarmine, the two-time defending CCS team champion, finished with the highest team score of the day (357) to advance to the final along with Stevenson (381), Palo Alto (381) and Menlo-Atherton (383).
The Mariners, who repeated as SCCAL champions this season with a perfect 10-0 record, finished in 11th place as a team with a score of 411.
Aptos’ Adam McDonald and Johnny Staka both fired an 83 to finish tied for 56th with Palo Alto’s Joonsung Ha.
Drew Stillwell (85, t-62nd), Noah Clarke (87, t-70th) and Cole DeFrancesco (91, t-80th) also competed for Aptos.
Monte Vista Christian junior Connor Tran, competing in his second straight CCS Regional, joined Stillwell and two other golfers in a tie for 62nd with an 85.
He was the only other local golfer on hand on Tuesday.
The second regional round is scheduled for Wednesday back at the Laguna Seca Golf Ranch. Santa Cruz High’s Matthew Holcomb, the SCCAL Individual Champion, will start his day at 8 a.m. on the first tee.
Meltzer, who will play NCAA Division I golf for San Jose State next season, finished tied for 33rd in last year’s CCS Championships at Rancho Canada Golf Course in Carmel and failed to make the brutally tough cut for the California Interscholastic Federation NorCal Golf Championships. Only the top three teams and the next four individuals not on those teams make the cut for NorCal.
Harbor High’s Deane Rinaldi is the last golfer from Santa Cruz County to advance, achieving the feat in 2015.
