It was another very good fall boys’ golf season for the FCIAC as many golfers from the conference were among the best players in the state once again.
Consequently, the conference had many of the best teams in the state as well. Eight FCIAC teams placed among the top 13 in team scoring at the Division I state tournament.
Among the other highlights: Darien won the FCIAC Boys Golf Tournament championship by two strokes over Fairfield Warde, Patrick Lewis of Trumbull sank a hole-in-one when he copped medalist honors by two strokes at that tournament, and Greenwich junior Will Neuenfeldt was the Division I individual state champion and a medalist in multiple tournaments.
Neuenfeldt, Trumbull junior Stephen Miklos, and Staples senior Gus Palmer were the three FCIAC players among the six total statewide selected to the 2025 GametimeCT All-State Fall Boys Golf First Team.
They led a large contingent of FCIAC players who earned all-conference or all-state honors for the second straight year.
Miklos was selected to the All-FCIAC Boys Golf First Team for the second consecutive year and was the only repeat all-conference first-teamer.
Ryan Morrice and Caden Apinis of Ridgefield, Darien’s Matthew West and Fairfield Warde’s Lucas Schacter were the other four players who joined Miklos on the 2025 All-FCIAC First Team.
West was the only conference player among six golfers selected to this year’s GametimeCT All-State Second Team.
Last year Morrice was picked for the FCIAC All-West Division Team and the GametimeCT All-State Second Team.
Schacter was another player who made an advancement in all-conference honors this year as he advanced to making this year’s All-FCIAC First Team after making the FCIAC All-East Division Team in 2024.
There were six players each on both of this year’s FCIAC all-division teams.
Neuenfeldt and his Greenwich teammate Ryan Nordin were named to the FCIAC All-West Division Team along with Ryan Busse and Aaron Martino of Danbury, and Trumbull’s Lewis and Miles Tibor, who joined Miklos on last year’s All-FCIAC First Team after they contributed to the Eagles winning the FCIAC championship in 2024.
Palmer, who was selected to the 2024 All-FCIAC First Team last year, made this year’s FCIAC All-East Division Team along with St. Joseph’s Michael Jones, Fairfield Ludlowe’s Stone Storch, and the Darien trio of Tim Secor, Connor Kilroy and George Brown.
Darien had good team balance among its handful of solid golfers all season and that contributed to coach Tom O’Donnell’s Blue Wave winning the team title at the 2025 FCIAC Boys Golf Tournament with a score of 306 on Oct. 17 at Smith Richardson Golf Course in Fairfield.
Fairfield Warde was runner-up with 308, Staples placed third with 314, and Greenwich was just a stroke behind Staples in fourth place.
Defending champion Trumbull placed fifth with a score of 321 and was followed by New Canaan (322), Ridgefield (324) and Danbury (343).
The top eight teams from the regular season qualified for the FCIAC tournament for the team championship.
Darien had a perfect unbeaten record of 14-0. Staples had the second-best record of 12-2 and was followed by Ridgefield (11-2), New Canaan (11-3), Greenwich (11-4), Fairfield Warde (8-5), Trumbull (7-6), and Danbury (7-7).
Each team had a lineup of five players and team scores are accumulated by adding the scores of the top four players on each team.
Trumbull’s Lewis was the medalist with the lowest score of 71 and Secor was runner-up with a 73 to lead Darien to the title as he led the four Blue Wave players who had a score of 78 or lower.
Secor might have shared medalist honors with Lewis if Lewis had simply parred the par-3 12th hole. But Lewis went and made a wonderful lifetime memory by acing the hole for his eagle.
In addition to Secor’s runner-up score of 73, West shot 77 while Blue Wave teammates Kyle Cheng and Connor Kilroy each had a 78 to secure Darien’s fourth overall FCIAC championship and first one since 2016.
Palmer of Staples and Greenwich’s Nordin tied for third place with a 74 and New Canaan’s Henry King was a stroke behind them to complete the top five.
Fairfield Warde’s runner-up Mustangs were led Zach Manger and Johnny Galvin tying for sixth place with a 76, and Jake Lotstein carded a 77 to finish in a three-way tie for eighth place with West of Darien and New Canaan’s Jack Ryan.
Neunfeldt shot 78 in that FCIAC Championship tournament, but the Greenwich junior had the uncanny knack for excelling in other tournaments before and after that.
Three days prior to the FCIAC championship tourney for the eight teams, there was the 2025 Hap Holahan Golf Tournament for top FCIAC golfers to crown an individual conference champion at Wee Burn Country Club in Darien on Oct. 14. Neunfeldt won the Holahan on the second playoff hole after he and New Canaan’s George Ives were co-medalists with a 75 after 18 holes.
Palmer was one stroke behind them in third place, Russell Lancaster of Darien was fourth with 78, and Ridgefield teammates Xavier O’Rourke and Apinis tied for fifth place with a 79. Schacter of Fairfield Warde and Trumbull’s Miklos tied for seventh with a 79.
The annual Mike Chappa Memorial Tournament at the par-69 Longshore Golf Course in Westport is always a fun tournament for many of the best golfers throughout the state in which they team up with another teammate in the two-man best-ball format.
There were five duos who shared medalist honors in The Chappa with a 6-under-par 63, including the Neuenfeldt-Nordin Greenwich tandem.
The Fairfield Prep pair of Graham Geisler and Ravi Khanna won the Oct. 9 event on the first playoff hole.
Palmer and Philip Sullivan of Staples and Fairfield Warde’s Schachter/Galvin team were the other two duos from FCIAC schools who carded a 63.
Robby Rosati, the GametimeCT Player of the Year, and his Fairfield Prep teammate Luke Hoglund were also among the five teams who shared medalist honors.
Neuenfeldt won a state championship one week after his Holahan victory when he shot a 3-under-par score of 68 on the Stanly Golf Course in New Britain on Oct. 21 at the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Division I Boys Fall Golf Tournament.
Palmer, the Staples senior, was 1-under-par with 70 as the runner-up. Secor of Darien and Fairfield Prep’s Hogland tied for third with 71.
Martino (72) of Danbury finished in a three-way tie for fifth place while Trumbull’s Tabor and Darien’s Cheng finished in a four-way tie for eighth place.
Cheng and Brown (76) helped lead Darien to a runner-up finish with a team score of 298 which was seven strokes behind champion Fairfield Prep.
Greenwich and Conard each carded a 302 to tie for third place, while Trumbull (305) placed fifth as the third FCIAC team in the top five.
Also, from the FCIAC: New Canaan (311) and Staples (318) were seventh and eighth respectively, Ridgefield (319) tied for ninth place, Danbury (321) placed 11th and Fairfield Warde (327) was 13th.