{"id":49122,"date":"2022-05-17T09:03:40","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T13:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/?p=49122"},"modified":"2022-05-18T15:21:10","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T19:21:10","slug":"slonaker-flames-win-visaa-state-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/2022\/05\/slonaker-flames-win-visaa-state-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Slonaker, Flames Win VISAA State Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article by Cody Elliott appeared in the May 16, 2022 issue of Daily News-Record.<\/a> <\/em> See WHSV TV-3 coverage here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It was somewhat of a relief for Adam Hatter.<\/p>\n

As the Eastern Mennonite senior celebrated with teammates and coaches Monday at Meadowbrook Country Club in Chesterfield, he couldn\u2019t help but make a witty comment about the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice that I don\u2019t need another ring fitting since I already know my size,\u201d Hatter said.<\/p>\n

Hatter was, of course, referencing when he earned a championship ring after winning the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association Division III boys basketball state title back in March as a standout point guard for the team.<\/p>\n

Turns out, another finger will be occupied for Hatter after the Flames shot a 312 and won a last-resort tiebreaker to defeat Veritas School for the VISAA D-III golf championship on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so proud of this group,\u201d EMS coach Chris Slonaker said. \u201cNot just the six golfers today, but our eight-man team and our very supportive parents and grandparents and siblings who came out to a lot of matches, including today. We always say any one shot can make the difference. That proved so true today.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Flames were tied with Veritas at 312 through the teams\u2019 top four golfers, which is what typically counts toward the scorecard.<\/p>\n

But the tiebreaker for such a situation was a fifth score.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many emotions were going through our minds as the final groups came in,\u201d Hatter said. \u201cWe had no idea whether we did it or not until the very last group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, Eastern Mennonite\u2019s Drew Hatter and Veritas\u2019 Danielle Kenny both shot a 15-over-par 86 to tie there, too.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when the final tiebreaker was revealed and the Flames learned they would rely on their sixth, and final, score of the day to determine the winner. Andrew Lantz, who shot an 89, had outperformed Veritas\u2019 Mark Gahagan (96) and that proved to be the difference as EMS was declared the team champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing I have to say is that I\u2019m just so happy right now,\u201d Lantz said. \u201cIt feels so good to win, especially after the roller coaster of emotions while all the scores were coming in.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just Eastern Mennonite bringing home its first-ever state title as a team that highlighted the day, though, as it was also a historic performance for standout sophomore Ryan Slonaker.<\/p>\n

Slonaker shot a blistering two-under-par 69 to win his second consecutive VISAA Division III state title as an individual.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of this team,\u201d Ryan Slonaker said. \u201cI mentioned before that we\u2019re extremely deep all the way to our sixth guy and beyond and that showed today. We needed all six to do it. Winning by a tie-breaking sixth score makes it even sweeter. We\u2019ve been so focused all year on the details. With the season on the line, focusing on the details is what gave us the edge. It all paid off, and I couldn\u2019t be more excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last season, Ryan Slonaker joined his older brother, Meade, as the only individual champions in program history. Now, he\u2019s made it back-to-back state wins with more on his to-do list.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am proud of how he prepared,\u201d Chris Slonaker said. \u201cInstead of feeling the pressure to repeat, his focus became helping the team score and challenging himself to beat the Division I and II players as well. That aggressive mindset is very helpful in golf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Hatter and Grant Pennybacker both carded a 79 for EMS.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot even a rain delay can delay progress,\u201d Pennybacker said.<\/p>\n

Schuyler Harmison finished fourth with an 85 for the Flames.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all could\u2019ve finished better on the last couple holes, but I wouldn\u2019t change the outcome if I could,\u201d the senior leader said. \u201cTo win on a tie-breaking fifth and sixth score was poetic justice after coming up just short last year. Two rings in one year is an amazing feeling. Feels better than I could\u2019ve imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adam Hatter, Drew Hatter, Slonaker and Harmison were all part of the state-winning boys basketball team just a few months ago.<\/p>\n

So as those four celebrated with their golf teammates after multiple years of runner-up finishes, there was a relief at finally finishing the job on the course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no better feeling than winning a state championship,\u201d Drew Hatter said. \u201cLucky enough, I was able to experience that twice\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article by Cody Elliott appeared in the May 16, 2022 issue of Daily News-Record. See WHSV TV-3 coverage here. It was somewhat of a relief for Adam Hatter. As the Eastern Mennonite senior celebrated with teammates and coaches Monday at Meadowbrook Country Club in Chesterfield, he couldn\u2019t help but make a witty comment about\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":49125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79],"tags":[148],"class_list":["post-49122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-golf"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.easternmennonite.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49122"}],"curies":[{"name":"gracias","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}