Aitkin pg 1 5-30-13

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Aitken twins
lead Killingly
to ECC
golf title
By Ron P. Coderre
Despite threatening weather and clouds that produced some minor drizzle and hung over Quinnatisset Country Club in Thompson all day May 23, the Eastern Connecticut Conference Golf Open went off without a hitch, in the shotgun-start event.
A full field of 18 teams, representing every school in the conference, teed off with the championship trophy in sight.  The threatening weather didn’t bother coach Kevin Marcoux’s Killingly Redmen or coach Bob McPhail’s Norwich Free Academy Wildcats as the two teams battled to the final hole before Killingly emerged victorious by one stroke.  The Redmen posted a team score of 324, while the Wildcats came in at 325.  Ledyard finished a distant third at 344.
Killingly freshman John Aitken led his team to the nail-biting victory and emerged as the medalist, posting a two over par 74 over the par 72  Quinny layout that seems to play well to his game.  He edged out NFA’s Nick Kamireddy and Justin Bohara, who turned in identical cards of 76.
Aitken, who started play on the second hole, had a comfortable lead going into his final hole, the par-three, 3rd, which plays entirely over water.  He dumped his tee shot into the pond and ended up with a double bogey, five, but still managed to secure his two-shot margin of victory.
Drew Aitken, John’s twin brother, tied for sixth with a respectable 79, while Brad Liebscher, who had been struggling with his game all season, fired his best round of the spring and his high school career, posting an 81.  Liebscher’s cousin Kyle turned in a card of 90 to round out the Redmen’s scoring.  Calvin Desjardin, Killingly’s other entry shot a 91.
Tourtellotte’s Mike Jezierski, who’s been one of the conference’s hottest golfers all spring, finished tied for fourth with a 78.  He led the Tigers to a fourth-place finish in the overall field with a team score of 350.  Woodstock Academy, a perennial ECC power that’s been struggling this season with a young team, finished a respectable 8th with a team score of 374.
Coaches Marcoux and McPhail marveled at the fact that after 18 holes with four of five players combining for the team score, that the match would be decided by a single stroke.  Shaking their heads they realized that every shot counts, a fact that they impressed on their young golfers.
Looking forward, the fact that the Aitken brothers, who play out of Connecticut National Golf Club, are only freshmen bodes well for Killingly golf, which can look to some good years ahead on the links.  But for the moment the Aitken twins and their teammates can take pleasure in knowing that the ECC Championship trophy sits in the Killingly High School trophy case.