The Wilmington Christian Academy showed once again that it is nurturing some of the better young golf talent in the region when its golf team again won the North Carolina Christian School Association’s tournament.
This makes the fourth consecutive year that the WCA Patriots have won the statewide golf tournament for Christian schools. Not only did the team repeat as winners, the golfers matched their record-setting performance from 2015.
With a combined score of 293 during the 2016 NCCSA tournament at the Neuse Golf Club in Clayton on May 3, the four golfers tied the record-low score that the WCA team set in the 2015 tournament. Chris Staton, WCA athletic director, said the Patriots repeated the record-setting feat and did so with the same lineup from last year.
Leading the way was senior Joey Funderburg, who put up a two-under-par score of 70. Funderburg edged out friend and teammate Blake Taylor, who took second place with a score of 71. Not far behind was sophomore Sarah Funderburg, who wasn’t too far behind her older brother with a score of 74, taking third place overall and first for girls. Sophomore Jake Booth rounded out the Patriots team with a 78, taking fifth place overall.
Wilmington Christian Academy golfers have proven they are competitive with the other area high schools, Staton said, noting that the Patriots won a tournament for Cape Fear region high schools in 2015. The team wasn’t able to compete in the 2016 tournament due to weather and scheduling, he said.
Taylor will look to advance his golf career at East Carolina University, while Funderburg will play amateur tournaments this summer before trying to walk on to the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s team, Staton said.
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