(Apollo, PA) Butler County Community College All-American golfer Troy Loughry won his second consecutive Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference individual men’s title Saturday and the unbeaten Pioneers captured their eighth crown since 2013 in the fall season-ending championship tournament at The Links at Spring Church.
The 36-hole championship tournament was shortened to Friday’s 18-hole results after play was canceled during Saturday’s second round due to weather conditions.
Loughry shot a 4-under 68 on Friday to finish with a 7-stroke victory and become BC3’s second two-time WPCC individual men’s champion in golf.
The Pioneers won by 30 strokes over second-place Westmoreland County Community College.
BC3 for the first time in program history ended consecutive fall seasons with a perfect record. The Pioneers were 12-0 in fall 2022 and 11-0 in fall 2021.
“You don’t use this word too often, but it’s sort of a dynasty for western Pennsylvania. We’re eight-time conference champs since 2013.”
“I think it shows that (BC3 coach) Bill Miller has done a fantastic job in building the program,” said Loughry, a Grove City High School graduate who in the spring 2022 season was named a National Junior College Athletic Association Division III first-team All-American with a fifth-place finish in the national championship tournament in Chautauqua, N.Y.
Said BC3 golfer Liam Kosior, a Neshannock High graduate: “You don’t use this word too often, but it’s sort of a dynasty for western Pennsylvania. We’re eight-time conference champs since 2013.”
Added Miller: “We have been very, very fortunate to have been able to recruit some really outstanding golfers. They’ve had good high school careers. They come with a little bit of experience. Now they are playing college golf and they mature. They get stronger.”
Chase Richardson, Westmoreland County, placed second with a 75 on Friday. The championship tournament included golfers from the Community College of Allegheny County and from Pennsylvania Highlands Community College.
Kosior was third with a 76 and the Pioneers’ Jack Mason fourth with an 83. BC3’s Cory Voltz tied for fifth with Westmoreland County’s Luke Wallace with an 87 and the Pioneers’ Tanner Hohmann was sixth with an 88.
Mason is a graduate of Freeport; Voltz, of Knoch; and Hohmann, of Grove City.
The Pioneers shot a 314 on Friday and Westmoreland County, a 344.
Loughry finished the fall season at 11-under in competitions at Lake Arthur Golf Course, Butler; North Park Golf Course, Wexford; Glengarry Golf Links, Latrobe; Chautauqua Golf Course, Chautauqua, N.Y.; and the Links at Spring Church. He was medalist in each of the regular- and postseason matches in which he competed in fall 2022 and in fall 2021.
“He’s the best golfer that I have had at the college.”
Loughry joined Carmen Oliva as the second Pioneer to twice win the WPCC championship tournament’s individual men’s title. Oliva, a Neshannock graduate, won in 2016 and in 2019. Chris Kier, of Knoch, won the men’s title in 2014 and Anthony Lewis, of Butler, in 2017.
“He’s the best golfer that I have had at the college,” Miller, BC3’s coach since 2003, said of Loughry.
“It starts off the tee with him,” Kosior said of Loughry. “He doesn’t get into trouble. Very rarely. If he gets in trouble, he gets out of it. Quick. And when he is putting well, he is the best player I have ever seen play. If his putter gets hot, he can roll putts. It’s scary for people to play against him when he is doing that. It’s intimidating.”
Loughry, Kosior, Mason, Voltz and Wallace were named to the WPCC all-conference squad based on their regular-season scoring averages. Loughry averaged a 68.5; Kosior, a 73.8; Wallace, a 75.6; and Mason and Voltz, an 80.
Loughry was also the individual men’s golf champion in the NJCAA Division III Region 20 tournament in May in Apollo. He became BC3’s first first-team All-American in June in Chautauqua.
BC3’s golf program has won 12 WPCC titles, one Pennsylvania Collegiate Athletic Association championship and five NJCAA Division III Region 20 crowns. It has produced All-Americans in Matthew Heighes in 1996, Michael Cuscino in 2008, Stefan Carlsson in 2014, Thomas Dimun in 2015, Carlsson in 2015 and Loughry in 2022.
The Pioneers’ fall golf season concludes with the WPCC championship tournament. The Pioneers’ spring season features regional play, regional tournaments and possible national championship appearances where golfers compete for All-American status.
BC3 did not play in 2020 as a result of an NJCAA decision to postpone athletics with regard to COVID-19.
