Sports

With six victories and the first hole-in-one in the team’s recent history, the month of April was a successful one for Stuyvesant’s undefeated golf team, the Swingers, who now stand at 8-0. Each of their competitions is made up of five individual matches. Of these 40 total individual matches, Stuyvesant has lost only one.

The week of Monday, April 14 was especially triumphant for them. Junior Charles Kuang nailed the team’s first hole-in-one in recent history on Tuesday, April 15. Two days later, on Thursday, April 17 the team defeated its chief rival, the Bronx High School of Science, in all five matches.

Kuang’s hole-in-one came on the third hole of a match with Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy. “I was really surprised,” Kuang said. “I didn’t think it would be a hole in one.” According to the New York Times, the odds of getting a hole-in-one are less than one in 3,000.

The Swingers returned to Van Cortland to face an undefeated Bronx Science that Thursday, April 17th. While the Swingers won all five matches, there was much tension. Besides sophomore Cody Levine’s 5-1 victory, every other match came down to the last two holes. Senior and captain Frederick Meyer improved his record to two wins, one loss and one tie. The other three players, senior Josh Clemente, junior Alex Robinson and sophomore Alex Shin, all maintained their perfect records.

First year coach and English teacher Emilio Nieves said, “We hung in there and won the match and that’s all that counts.” Nieves was particularly pleased with the performances of Robinson, who he said is “tough to beat, he hangs in there with anyone,” and Meyer, who he said “has shown a lot of heart.”

“My opponent played very well,” Meyer said. “It was a very tight match, but I pulled through in the end and won a really big victory.”

Last season, the Swingers came within a shot of forcing a tiebreaker in the semifinals of the playoffs against Benjamin Cardozo High School, who ended up winning the championships. Unlike any of the other three semifinal teams from last year, all five players from Stuyvesant’s team are returning this year.

Nieves said that he is proud of his team’s depth. “I’m confident that it will take us far,” he said. With their fast start, the Swingers have their eyes on the city championship. Meyer said, “We have a good shot to win the whole thing.”