The deepest roster he has had in two decades as Butler County Community College’s coach made it difficult, Bill Miller said, to select the six golfers who this week will contend for the program’s fourth conference championship in a row and 10th in the past 11 seasons.
Lincoln High School graduate Mitchell Covert will be among the six.
“It was tough, very tough,” Miller said. “I wanted to take all eight. They have all given a great effort. All very deserving. But I can take only six.”
The Pioneers’ Jacob Marquardt, Xander Downing, Kaden Rentz, Mitchell Covert, Parker Worsley and Ben Perris have been picked to compete Octobert 3-4 in the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference championship at the Links at Spring Church in Apollo.
BC3 will face the Community College of Allegheny County, Pittsburgh; Pennsylvania Highlands Community College, Johnstown; and Westmoreland County Community College, Youngwood; in the 36-hole conference championship.
Only the four lowest scores from each golfer will be tallied. The team with the lowest score after two rounds will win the conference championship and the golfer with the lowest score, the conference individual title.
“A very good opportunity to win”
“Hopefully we bring our best effort and our best game,” said Miller, whose fall-season record is 48-1 since 2021. “If we play the way we’ve been capable of playing throughout the season, that’s about all I can ask. I think we have a very good opportunity to win the conference.”
Downing could become BC3’s second two-time conference individual champion since 2003 and join Troy Loughry, who won titles in 2021 and in 2022.
Mitchell Covert, a member of the Butler County Community College men’s golf team, lines up a putt Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, during a match against Westmoreland County Community College at Lake Arthur Golf Club near Butler.
“He’s consistent,” Marquardt said of Downing. “His irons are really good. He chips the ball well, so that helps him, especially when he is not hitting it the best off the tee. And his putter saves him about five strokes each round as well.”
Marquart will be BC3’s No. 1 golfer in the championship, Miller said. The Seneca Valley High School graduate shot his lowest score of the fall with a 4-under-par 68 on Sept. 6 at North Park Golf Course, Allison Park.
“Marquardt just hits the ball so far off the tee,” Miller said. “In the matches he has played he has been just flawless. Xander is very consistent. Plays smart. Very good around the greens. His experience will come through in the tournament.”
Downing, the squad’s only sophomore, will be the Pioneers’ No. 2 golfer. The Butler High graduate’s best round this fall was a 2-over 74 on Sept. 23 at Lake Arthur Golf Club.
Rentz will be the Pioneers’ No. 3 golfer and Covert, No. 4. Each shot his best round of the season Sept. 20 at North Park. Rentz, Seneca Valley, had a 2-under 70 and Covert, Lincoln High, Ellwood City, a 74.
Another year on banner “would be pretty cool”
Covert said he is excited to see how BC3 plays and to be on a team that may add 2024 to a banner in BC3’s Field House that lists the years the program has been conference champion.
“That would be pretty cool,” Covert said, “to put another year up there and to be up there with everyone else.”
Worsley and Perris will be BC3’s No. 5 and No. 6 golfers, respectively.
“I feel like we have a pretty strong team,” Miller said. “This is the deepest team one through eight that we have had. We’ve had players in the first two or three spots that were very strong. When you see scores like we have had this year with all six guys that you send to a match, that’s pretty good.”
Miller was also impressed with the Pioneers’ Jaxon Salata and Noah Ritchie.
“Salata really came on,” Miller said. “He was fighting a shoulder injury during the season, but I am looking forward to him and Ritchie coming back in the spring.”
Moniteau grad to compete for women’s individual title
Chris Kier, Knoch, in 2014 became BC3’s first conference individual champion since at least 2003. He was followed by Anthony Lewis, Butler, 2017; Carmen Oliva, Neshannock, 2019; Loughry, Grove City; and Downing. Loughry was also named a National Junior College Athletic Association Division III first-team All-American in 2022 and in 2023.
Taylor Voloch, Moniteau, will face Westmoreland County Community College’s Jada Ford for the conference’s women’s individual title. BC3’s Julia Fisher and Sarah Fisher, each Freeport graduates, won the women’s titles in 2018 and in 2021, respectively, and Jocelyn Dias, Armstrong, in 2019, each in uncontested fields.
Covert, Downing and Salata are business administration students at BC3. Marquardt is enrolled in the college’s computer information systems-networking and cybersecurity program; Perris, secondary education-social studies option; Rentz, physical education-sport management option; Ritche, early childhood education (Pre K-4); and Worsley, business management.
Voloch is a psychology student.
BC3’s fall golf season concludes with the WPCC championship tournament. The program has won 13 team titles since 1972.
The Pioneers’ spring season features regional play, regional tournaments and possible national championship appearances where golfers compete for All-American status.
BC3 did not play in 2020 as a result of an NJCAA decision to postpone athletics with regard to COVID-19.
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