The boys golf season was the first to conclude in the fall and turned out to be absolutely outstanding for Aurora area programs and individual.
The season was so good, the 2024 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Boys Golf Team needs six first team members, as opposed to the usual five.
That is largely due to the performance of Cherokee Trail, which came into the season with its top group fully intact from the one that tied for second place in the 2023 5A state tournament.
Three of those holdovers — senior Christopher O’Donnell and juniors Brayden Forte and Dalton Sisneros — make up half of the All-Aurora team, which is rounded out by Grandview senior Michael Rosman, Regis Jesuit senior Sam Walker and Eaglecrest junior Gregory White.
— Find the full 2024 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Boys Golf Team, here
Cherokee Trail moved forward with a new coach in Ryan Stevens, but didn’t skip a competitive beat with so much experience back in the fold. The Cougars finished as the Centennial League runners-up behind the same Cherry Creek team that bested them by three strokes in the 5A state tournament.
Leading the way was Sisneros, who made big strides from his previous season. During the regular season, he earned All-Centennial League first team honors with the fifth-most points earned, as he capped the season with a victory in the league tournament at Saddle Rock G.C. Sisneros advanced with the team to the state tournament (after the Cougars won the Northern Region), where he moved up from a tie for 14th as a sophomore to a three-way tie for third place with rounds of 2-under 69 and 3-under 68.
Forte also had a tournament victory to his credit with a 64 he shot at City Park G.C. to help Cherokee Trail win the City League Invitational and he was the individual runner-up at the Centennial League tournament at South Suburban G.C. on his way to all-league first team honors. He couldn’t exactly duplicate his sophomore season, when he finished second individually at state, but he carded a 1-under 70 on the second day to lift himself into a tie for 15th.
O’Donnell served as a strong and steady presence for the Cherokee Trail program for four years and qualified for state each season, putting him alongside 2016 graduate Bradley Scalia as the program’s four-time state qualifiers to date. He finished 11th in the Centennial League standings, while he tied for second in the Northern Regional to help his team advance to state. O’Donnell shot a 2-under 69 in his final state round (eight strokes better than his first round) and finished in 28th place.
Individually, the top local player throughout the season was Rosman, who continued the upward trajectory of his game with a fantastic final prep season as he attempted to concentrate on the setup and posture of each of his shots and let the scores fall into place.
The scores most certainly did that for Rosman, who had a round of 10-under-par 62 at Aurora Hills G.C., which helped him on his way to winning medalist honors in the loaded Centennial League. Rosman shot in the 60s in three of five league rounds to earn the league’s top individual spot by four points.
Rosman went on to qualify for his third career state berth and once there, he made a run at the state title before he finished as the state runner-up by a single stroke to Castle View’s Gavin Amella. Rosman finished 8-under-par over the two-day tournament at CommonGround G.C. to record the Grandview program’s highest-ever individual state finish. An individual state qualifier as a sophomore and junior, Rosman also enjoyed having his entire team qualify for state.
White finished as the Centennial League runner-up behind Rosman with two tournament victories (at Meadow Hills G.C. and South Suburban G.C.) in the four league events he played, while he shot 70 or lower in all of them. He qualified for a third career trip to the state tournament and finished it with a 2-under-par 69, which brought him into a tie for 15th place individually.
Walker had an outstanding final season in which he helped Regis Jesuit win the Continental League team championship and qualify for the state tournament as a team. The recent Trinity (Texas) University signee tied for first place in the opening league tournament of the season at King’s Deer G.C. and also claimed medalist honors at the 5A Central Region tournament with a round of 6-under-par 66.
In his second state tournament, Walker shot a 1-under 70 in his final round to improve by seven strokes from the opening round and lift himself up from 44th after the first day into a tie for 28th with three other players, including O’Donnell.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
