3 minute read
SPORTS
Balanced Bucs: Hoover boys basketball team looking to make a run at state title Page 26
On the Upswing: Young Homewood girls basketball team showing marked improvement Page 26SPORTS
Thursday, January 12, 2023 ❖ OVER THE MOUNTAIN JOURNAL
Sargent Accepts Invitation to Play in the Masters
By RuBin E. GRant
Mountain Brook golf coach Alex Lockett once described former Spartans’ golfer Gordon Sargent as a “special talent.”
Now, that special talent will get a chance to showcase his game on perhaps the grandest golf stage in the nation. Sargent, 19, has accepted an invitation to compete in the 2023 Masters.
Fred Ridley, chairman of Augusta National Golf Club, announced last Thursday that Sargent, now a sensational sophomore at Vanderbilt, and Kazuki Higa had accepted invitations extended by the tournament.
“I think that’s pretty awesome,” Lockett said. “Gordon has a lot of high expectations, and he seems to be exceeding them all.” Last year, Sargent became the first freshman to win the NCAA Division I men’s golf tournament since 2007. Higa topped the Japan Golf Tour’s Order of Merit in
Last year, Sargent 2022. “The Masters became the first Tournament prioritizes freshman to win the opportunities to elevate both amateur and professional
NCAA Division I golf around the world,” men’s golf tournament Ridley said in a statement released by Augusta since 2007. National. “Thus, we have extended invitations to two deserving players not otherwise qualified. Whether on the international stage or at the elite amateur level, each player has showcased their talent in the past year. We See SARGENT, page 27
Former Mountain Brook High School standout Gordon Sargent is No. 3 in the current World Amateur Golf Ranking and is the first amateur to accept a special invitation to play in the Masters since 2000. In his first year at Vanderbilt, Sargent won the Phil Mickelson Outstanding Freshman Award and was chosen as a first-team All-American by Golfweek and PING.
Homewood Edges Mountain Brook to Claim Regional Duals Title
By RuBin E. GRant
Since the inception of the Alabama High School Athletic Association wrestling duals in 2017, Homewood had won its regional championship just once. And that was in the first year of the competition.
The Patriots finally secured another regional duals title last Friday, but just barely. Homewood edged Mountain Brook 32-31 in the finals of the Class 6A, Region 4 duals tournament at Homewood.
Second-year Homewood coach Frankie McKeown described it as a “big accomplishment.”
“Mountain Brook is a really, really good team,” McKeown said. “I’m super proud of our guys. It was a big accomplishment.”
Homewood recorded four pins, Joseph Marcum at 106 pounds, Moeen Almansoob at 126, Sam Sutton at 152 and Bardon King at 285. Mountain Brook had two pins, Stephen Springfield at 113 and William Courtenay at 220.
McKeown liked the enthusiastic atmosphere at the tournament.
“It was really cool,” he said. “We had a number of people there and they were really into it.”
Neither Homewood nor Mountain Brook had any trouble in the early rounds. The Patriots knocked off Minor 82-0, Hueytown 81-0 and Jackson-Olin 70-6, while Mountain Brook defeated Jackson-Olin 78-6, Hueytown 84-0 and Minor 84-0.
Both schools advance to the ASHAA Duals tournament this weekend. Homewood will host Pelham in a preliminary round match Friday, while Mountain Brook visits McAdory. If the Patriots and
See HOMEWOOD, page 27
Above, Mountain Brook’s William Courtenay pinned Homewood’s Trust Darnell in the 220 pound weight class. Below, Homewood’s Buddy Ketchum won a major dec. over Mountain Brook’s Davis Smith in 120.
