Sessa leads Garden City Maroon to title

The girl's golf team representing Nassau County at the state tounrament will be blanketed in Maroon.

Eighth-grader Samantha Sessa shot a 9-over 80 at Bethpage Yellow to win the Nassau County individual championship and will be joined by four Garden City Maroon teammates at the state tournament on June 11 at Delhi.

Just three strokes separated Sessa from teammate Erica Gambardella, who came in second after shooting an 83.  Also representing Garden City at states will be Alex Michielini and Laura Ketigian, who tied for fourth place with an 85, and Marisa Cameron, who tied for eighth with an 88.

"Samantha really hits the ball a very long way and she does well with her short game around the greens," Garden City Maroon coach Reid Sclafani said. "Erica doesn’t hit the ball nearly as far but she is very good wityh her long irons and is a terrific putter." 

Garden City Maroon also won its fifth straight team championship, combining for a record low aggregate score of 421, breaking with ease their own record of 456 set two years earlier.  Syosset, who will send three to states, came in second for the eighth straight year with a score of  466 and Jericho came in third with a 528.    

"They were very excited for each other,” Sclafani said.  “The whole team did so well that they could only be happy for one another.  Knowing Syosset was going to be so tough, they were all focused.  It all just came together as a group.”

Garden City Maroon advances to play Sayville for the Long Island Championship at Sunken Meadow on Wednesday, June 2.

The state team will also include Elizabeth Choi (84), Tara Petruzillo (85), and Rohini Rudra (87) of Syosset and Casey Durant (88) of Sewanhaka District.