After some technical difficulties, I’m back to fill you in on day one of the public school state championships at Cornell University. It was a rare dry day up here in Ithaca (I heard from one set of parents that if you see blue sky, even for a moment, it’s automatically one of the top 10 nicest days of the year), but scores weren’t extremely low, probably due to a decent amount of wind, especially early.

Of course, there were some great scores led by Dominic Bozzelli of McQuaid (Section 5), who shot a 3-under-par 69 and then a group of three tied at 70, including Andrew DeForest of Section 9’s Rondout Valley, the younger brother of Chris DeForest, a longtime standout in this event.

As for Section 1, the charge was led by Luke Feehan of Mahopac, who fired a 74 in his first try on this course. Fellow first-timer John Casey of North Rockland carded a 75 as did Brewster’s Mike Miller.

Here are the other scores: Stu Kaufman (Byram Hills) 76; Drew Clayton (Somers) 78; Dylan Newman (New Rochelle) 80; Marisa Kamelgarn (Mahopac) 81; Joe Raitano (Mahopac) 81; Andrew Graham (Arlington) 82.

As a team, Section 1 shot a 539 (best 7 of 9 scores) and is 17 shots off the lead of Section 5.

Feehan had an exciting round that included an eagle on No. 7. He finished on the front nine, which is decidedly easier, and went birdie, bogey, bogey, eagle, birdie, bogey to end his round.

Kamelgarn got off to a solid start by making par on the first three holes, but her putter let her down with a couple three-putts.

Miller also struggled on the greens, despite having a great ball-striking round. He hit 14 greens in regulation, including two par-5s in two, but had 36 putts. His round was very similar to Kamelgarn in that they both made double bogey on the treacherous 16th hole.

Afterwards, Miller worked for a longtime on his putting with his dad, Bob. Kamelgarn then sought out Mr. Miller for a lesson as well and afterwards, he predicted a low score for her tomorrow. We shall see.

Miller then stayed long after every other player left the course to continue working on his putting. He’s struggled with the flat-stick all season, but he left the course feeling pretty confident. If he starts making putts, watch out.

After filing my story from the clubhouse, I went to dinner with the coaches in the dining hall. The food was great as always, as was the chocolate frozen yogurt to top it off… I’m sure the powers that be at The Journal News will also appreciate that the meal cost a whopping $8.75.

After dinner, I attended the big meeting with all the teams where the state coordinator, Doug Courtright went over some things about the day, gave out some awards, and discussed the schedule for tomorrow. The first tee time is bright and early at 7:30 a.m. and Dylan Newman will be in that group. I hope he’s asleep right now…

After the meeting and a brief team meeting, I joined the team for a game of ping-pong baseball in one of the conference rooms of the student center. I won’t go into details, but let’s just say those playing worked up a sweat. Fortunately, there are no injuries to report though.

It was great to see this group getting along so well. They seem to really be having a great time up here. Then again, they are getting to play golf and hang out instead of going to school tomorrow.

Okay, well I’m off to bed, since I plan on getting to the course around 8:30 a.m. I ended up getting hooked on the movie Jarhead last night and didn’t get much sleep, but the 300 isn’t quite holding my attention as much tonight.

Be back tomorrow to wrap things up.