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Cape Tech Shines At Cape and Islands High School Golf Championship
Cape Cod Tech sophomore Chris Morin putts at the sixth hole of The Bay course at Willowbend Country Club during the Cape And Islands High School Golf Championship on Friday. EREZ BEN-AKIVA PHOTOS
auset sophomore Oliver Smith hits a shot during the tournament.
Monomoy junior Hank Brown putts during the tournament.
Cape Tech junior Matt Swartz readies at the tee box before a playoff at the ninth hole of The Bog course.
MASHPEE – Right after playing 18 holes in the Cape and Islands High School Golf Championship at Willowbend Country Club on Friday, Brayden Wright — a senior at Cape Cod Tech — couldn’t find his scorecard.
He and a tournament director hopped on a golf course and scanned the course in search of it. They returned back to the clubhouse, where most of the other golfers and coaches were gathered — positioned in front of the competition’s leaderboard.
A short while later, Wright did find his card, and with it, the numbers on the paper delivered to the scorekeeper affirmed Cape Tech’s huge day in Mashpee. The Crusaders — sustained by two top-five individual finishes and Wright cutting 10 strokes from his score last year — finished third out of 16 schools at the regional championship. Altogether, Cape Tech as a team dropped nearly 30 strokes from their 11th place finish in 2024, and junior Matt Swartz finished second in the individual competition after a one-hole playoff.
The Crusaders entered the Cape and Islands High School Golf Championship already having earned a Mayflower Athletic Conference title off of a 7-3 season.
“It's a huge momentum builder, and they were riding that all the way through to the end of the season and in the tournament,” head coach Kevin Furey said.
Swartz shot a 73, sophomore Chris Morin shot a 75 and Wright shot 93 for a 241 aggregate, a year after Cape Tech shot a 269 at the same course. Swartz lost a one-hole playoff to Barnstable’s Colin Gleason, who also shot a 73, to take second-place in the individual competition. Gleason and Barnstable swept the individual and team tournaments for the second year in a row.
Morin shaved nine strokes off his score from last year’s championship, while Wright’s score was 10 shots down. Swartz didn’t participate in the 2024 tournament. Cape Tech also placed second in the small division at the Massachusetts State Vocational Golf Tournament earlier this fall. There’s not a bad player on the team, and they all do well together, Swartz said.
“We were definitely underdogs coming into the season,” he said. “Nobody expected us to win the conference, really win any matches.”
Wright, a senior, has been through the gauntlet, Furey said, only to now finish as a conference champion. The team has good depth, and with Morin a sophomore and Swartz a junior, the talent and confidence at the top of the lineup will continue into the following years.
“There's a lot of things to build forward, and it's exciting,” Furey said.
Just behind Swartz in the individual competition was Nauset senior Max St. Aubin, who earned a third-place trophy with a 74, five strokes down from his score last year. St. Aubin battled with Gleason all day in the competition’s lead grouping, finishing just one stroke behind the eventual winner after 18 holes.
“I'm happy about how the day went,” St. Aubin said. “My best finish out here for the three years I played it. It's a really tough course, and I'm glad about how I played it today.”
Also for Nauset High School, sophomore Oliver Smith shot an 80 and senior Jake Eldredge shot 83 to give the Warriors a 242 total, good for a fourth-place finish in the team competition. Smith’s score was one stroke down from his number in 2024 while Eldredge was a new addition to Nauset’s trio.
Nauset and Cape Tech were both set to compete in the Division 2 South Sectional at LeBaron Hills Country Club in Lakeville on Tuesday, after The Chronicle’s deadline.
“I think the hard work this summer and these past two weeks, working up to the postseason, have been huge for these tournaments,” St. Aubin said.
Monomoy — set to play in the Division 3 South Sectional at Foxborough Country Club, also on Tuesday — finished 10th overall at Willowbend with a team score of 260, off an 80 from junior Cam Reeves, an 81 from junior Hank Brown and a 99 from senior Joey Ventura. The 260 aggregate was only one stroke up from last year’s 259, despite the Sharks competing with an entirely new lineup from the all-senior trio that played in the 2024 championship.
He and a tournament director hopped on a golf course and scanned the course in search of it. They returned back to the clubhouse, where most of the other golfers and coaches were gathered — positioned in front of the competition’s leaderboard.
A short while later, Wright did find his card, and with it, the numbers on the paper delivered to the scorekeeper affirmed Cape Tech’s huge day in Mashpee. The Crusaders — sustained by two top-five individual finishes and Wright cutting 10 strokes from his score last year — finished third out of 16 schools at the regional championship. Altogether, Cape Tech as a team dropped nearly 30 strokes from their 11th place finish in 2024, and junior Matt Swartz finished second in the individual competition after a one-hole playoff.
The Crusaders entered the Cape and Islands High School Golf Championship already having earned a Mayflower Athletic Conference title off of a 7-3 season.
“It's a huge momentum builder, and they were riding that all the way through to the end of the season and in the tournament,” head coach Kevin Furey said.
Swartz shot a 73, sophomore Chris Morin shot a 75 and Wright shot 93 for a 241 aggregate, a year after Cape Tech shot a 269 at the same course. Swartz lost a one-hole playoff to Barnstable’s Colin Gleason, who also shot a 73, to take second-place in the individual competition. Gleason and Barnstable swept the individual and team tournaments for the second year in a row.
Morin shaved nine strokes off his score from last year’s championship, while Wright’s score was 10 shots down. Swartz didn’t participate in the 2024 tournament. Cape Tech also placed second in the small division at the Massachusetts State Vocational Golf Tournament earlier this fall. There’s not a bad player on the team, and they all do well together, Swartz said.
“We were definitely underdogs coming into the season,” he said. “Nobody expected us to win the conference, really win any matches.”
Wright, a senior, has been through the gauntlet, Furey said, only to now finish as a conference champion. The team has good depth, and with Morin a sophomore and Swartz a junior, the talent and confidence at the top of the lineup will continue into the following years.
“There's a lot of things to build forward, and it's exciting,” Furey said.
Just behind Swartz in the individual competition was Nauset senior Max St. Aubin, who earned a third-place trophy with a 74, five strokes down from his score last year. St. Aubin battled with Gleason all day in the competition’s lead grouping, finishing just one stroke behind the eventual winner after 18 holes.
“I'm happy about how the day went,” St. Aubin said. “My best finish out here for the three years I played it. It's a really tough course, and I'm glad about how I played it today.”
Also for Nauset High School, sophomore Oliver Smith shot an 80 and senior Jake Eldredge shot 83 to give the Warriors a 242 total, good for a fourth-place finish in the team competition. Smith’s score was one stroke down from his number in 2024 while Eldredge was a new addition to Nauset’s trio.
Nauset and Cape Tech were both set to compete in the Division 2 South Sectional at LeBaron Hills Country Club in Lakeville on Tuesday, after The Chronicle’s deadline.
“I think the hard work this summer and these past two weeks, working up to the postseason, have been huge for these tournaments,” St. Aubin said.
Monomoy — set to play in the Division 3 South Sectional at Foxborough Country Club, also on Tuesday — finished 10th overall at Willowbend with a team score of 260, off an 80 from junior Cam Reeves, an 81 from junior Hank Brown and a 99 from senior Joey Ventura. The 260 aggregate was only one stroke up from last year’s 259, despite the Sharks competing with an entirely new lineup from the all-senior trio that played in the 2024 championship.
