Local Golf: Lesak, Reiprish capture Schuylkill County Junior Golf crowns
Winners at Monday's 42nd annual Schuylkill County Junior Golf Championships were, from left: Austin Marrongelle, junior high boys; Josh Lesak, high school boys; Vivian Reiprish, high school girls; and Ben Fuggiti, elementary boys (Photo by Leroy Boyer).
ORWIGSBURG — Josh Lesak decided to be a little more aggressive the second time around.
It paid off in a championship.
Lesak, a junior to be at Blue Mountain, captured the 2025 Schuylkill County Junior Golf championship on Monday at Schuylkill Country Club, outlasting teammate Evan Setlock and North Schuylkill’s Jude Maziekas on the second hole of a three-way playoff.
“It feels great to win,” the 16-year-old Lesak said. “This is my third season and it’s just awesome to see how far I’ve come in my golf game. It was a great day.”
This year’s Schuylkill County Junior Golf Championships, which basically are a preseason high school tournament, attracted 62 golfers representing all 13 Schuylkill League golf squads.
Lourdes junior Vivian Reiprish repeated as the girls’ champion, shooting a 7-over 79. Austin Marrongelle, a sixth-grader at Blue Mountain Middle School, repeated as the junior high boys’ champ with an 88, while Blue Mountain fifth-grader Ben Fuggiti was the elementary boys’ winner with a 123.
Reiprish won the five-girl competition by nine strokes over Blue Mountain’s Delaney Walborn and Minersville’s Emma Troutman, who both carded 88s.
“It’s really exciting to win it two years (in a row),” Reiprish said. “It was really hard. It wasn’t an easy win.
“Staying in the fairways with my drives put me in good spots and I was able to get close to the greens. I putted very well today.”
The high school boys’ division was tight throughout, with seven golfers shooting under 80.
Lesak, Setlock and Maziekas all carded a 3-over 75 to force the three-way playoff. Tamaqua freshman Sam Vinc (76) was fourth, followed by Schuylkill Haven sophomore Eli Barton (77), Nativity senior Trey Keating (78) and Schuylkill Haven junior Alan Evans (79).
With a large gallery watching the action from the Schuylkill Country Club patio, the three-way playoff began on the par-4, 344-yard No. 18. All three golfers landed their drives in the fairway, but Maziekas, a senior, was the only one to put his second shot on the green, roughly 30 feet from the cup.
Setlock, a senior, was able to chip close from the fringe, while Lesak blasted out of a deep bunker onto the green even closer than Setlock. All three golfers sank par putts to force a second playoff hole.
“I wasn’t really hitting my driver too well today, wasn’t controlling it very well,” Lesak said. “So I went 5-wood off the tee. That put me at about 125 yards (out) or so, which is a range I wasn’t really at too much today, so it was an unfamiliar club. I hit that club, got a little right, into the bunker.
“Coming up to that shot, there was a little nerves. It was a steep lip there. I opened up my face with my 60 degree, let it catch the slope and rolled it down to about three and a half feet.”
