If Emmaus golf head coach Mike Mihalik had dreamed about the perfect scenario for his team at the District 11 championship tournament, it would have looked pretty much like what occurred Monday at Schuylkill Country Club.

The Hornets achieved everything they set out to do at districts. They won the team title, avenging a league tournament loss to Nazareth to advance to Friday’s subregional. The team also produced both of this year’s Class AAA individual champions as Max Harrington earned the boys title and Sam Fritzinger won her second straight girls title.

Finally, the Hornets saw all three players eligible to advance to regionals individually achieve that goal as Harrington, Fritzinger and Kevin Caverly will move on to Monday’s PIAA East Regional Championship at Golden Oaks in Fleetwood.

“Today was as ideal as you can imagine,” said Mihalik. “You can’t have a better day. It’s pretty awesome.”

The team title was the first thing on the Hornets’ minds. After going undefeated in the regular season, Nazareth edged Emmaus for the league tournament title two weeks ago.

With four players in the 70s, Emmaus beat the Blue Eagles by 15 strokes (305-320) at Monday’s district tournament. The Hornets’ fourth score was provided by junior Eric Cichocki, who shot 78.

The team moves on to a PIAA subregional match Friday.

Despite the individual awards, both of Emmaus’ district champions were more concerned about the team results than their own finishes.

“I thought I had a good shot to win,” said Harrington. “But really all I’m trying to do is help the team out and make it to regionals. That’s my real goal.”

Harrington won the boys title with a 1-over par round of 73.

The senior was 3-over-par through four holes and 4-over through nine. But he pulled it together with birdies on three of his next six holes to get to get back to 2-over.

He began to shift his focus at that point.

“That’s when I felt like I had a chance at winning,” he said. “I wasn’t just thinking about making it.

“I wasn’t that nervous because I was hitting my drives straight and all the trouble is off the tee. So I wasn’t as nervous as I usually am.”

He finished two strokes ahead of Easton’s Paul Fedele for the title.

Harrington’s head coach was proud of the way Harrington held it together down the stretch.

“That’s what separates the people who are moving on and the people who aren’t,” said Mihalik. “It’s the mental game. There’s a lot of talented golfers here, but the kids who tend to be stronger mentally have longer seasons in the end. This team here is incredibly mentally strong.”

Harrington hit 16 greens in regulation in his round. He made one double bogey, three bogeys and four birdies.

Fritzinger also played a steady round, shooting 76 to win the title by 19 strokes of Pottsville’s Rachel Brahler.

She made 14 pars and four bogeys to finish 4-over par and earn her second individual district title in two years.

“It feels good,” said Fritzinger, a junior. “The whole time I was just trying to keep it at bogey golf if I had to because I wasn’t making my birdie putts.”

She hit 12 greens in regulation, but missed five short birdie putts.

While she was proud of her individual medal, getting a hand on the team trophy was the best part of the day.

“That was the major part of today that I’m happy about,” she said.

Caverly qualified for regionals for the first time with his round of 78.

“I was thinking anything under 80 has a chance,” he said. “I hit the ball really well. I kind of lost the driver and put it back in the bag and just hit three wood right up the middle. I three-putted a few times and missed some short putts.”

Several Emmaus players said putting was difficult on the Donald Ross greens.

Connor Wambold also competed in the team district matches, shooting a round of 96.

While Chichocki was not eligible to move on because he didn’t qualify individually based on last week’s qualifying tournament scores, his round of 78 would have been low enough to advance.

The junior who placed fourth at the league tournament has played well in the postseason. His round at districts helped the team as much as any of the four scores that counted toward the team total.

“That was a turning point in our match,” said Mihalik. “We heard that Eric was playing well. That’s big. That took a lot of pressure off our other players.

“That was a huge round today. That was his best round of the year today. With this kind of pressure I cannot possibly ask anything more of Eric. He’s a battler.”

Mihalik looked back on the second-place finish his team took at the league tournament and felt it was just what his players might have needed heading into districts, where the winning team advances and the second-place team is finished.

“It might have been the best thing for the team to have that little extra motivation to beat Nazareth today,” said Mihalik.

Emmaus will advance to play in a subregional playoff match Friday at LuLu Golf Course in Glenside. The winner of that two-team match will compete as a team in Monday’s PIAA East Regional Tournament.

The Hornets have fallen in the subregional round in each of the last two seasons. As of Monday they were unsure who their opponent would be, but they know it will be a formidable one.

“It’s the Philadelphia district so it’s all the private schools there,” said Caverly. “It would be cool to beat them but I don’t think we can get down on ourselves if we don’t.”

His teammate thinks this might be the year Emmaus pulls off the upset.

“We’ve got to play well,” said Harrington. “I think we can do it this year. If we play really well like we did today we have a real shot at beating them. Everyone has to play well, top to bottom.”

Mihalik just wants his team to enjoy the ride.

“We haven’t had much luck in the next stage,” he said. “All I know is whatever team wins that district is a great team so we’ve got our work cut out for us. I just hope we go down there on Friday and have fun. If we have a fun time on Friday then I’ll be happy with that.”

District golf notes

One third of the Class AAA individual qualifiers came from the Hornets as six boys and three girls advance to regionals.

Along with Harrington and Caverly, who earned sixth place at districts, the rest of the boys contingent includes Eaton’s Paul Fedele (75), Nazareth’s Nick Atherholt (77) and Kevin Scherr (77) and Pocono Mountain West’s Tim Gaudette.

The Class AAA girls qualfiers are Fritzinger, Brahler (95) and Pottsville’s Kayla Drasdis (102).

In Class AA, Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg’s William Mirams shot the day’s low round with a 71. He advances to regionals along with three others from Class AA. They are Bethlehem Catholic’s Nick Maff (72) and Moravian Adademy’s Cory Haldeman (73) and Collin McQueen (77).

Moravian Academy won the Class AA team title.