Where Katie Carlson was playing golf Tuesday at Rolling Hills Country Club, her sister Caroline was running a cross country meet on the rolling hills at Northgate.
What a shame that the WPIAL Class AA championship included one and excluded the other, all because of a ridiculous rule.
Because Avonworth doesn't have a girls golf team, the Carlson sisters had to play for an Avonworth-Northgate boys' co-op team. Under PIAA rules, only one girl could play in a qualifier.
The sisters made a deal that Caroline would go last year — she finished seventh in the WPIAL, 16th in the PIAA — and Katie would advance this fall.
“It's a bummer,” said Katie, a sophomore who shot 10-over 83 to finish third in Class AA, “because it would have been so much fun to go to states together.”
The Zambruno sisters, Olivia and Abby, got Greensburg Central Catholic to start a girls golf team so they could qualify, and they finished first and sixth. But the Carlsons are Avonworth's top golfers, so doing the same would have decimated the boys' team.
After the WPIAL denied the Carlsons' request for relief in June, Caroline accepted it and also joined cross country.
The worst part for the Carlsons was seeing that only seven of the eight Class AA qualifiers shot under 100. Caroline regularly shot in the high 80s or low 90s.
“It was just a very weird feeling,” said Caroline, the medalist Sept. 30 in her final match. “I'd be really happy if this draws some attention. I'm a senior, so it can't help me but it will affect some other girls. … They're going to have the same struggle.”
A struggle for two sisters that's as ridiculous as the rule that prevented one from playing for the WPIAL girls golf title.
Kevin Gorman is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. Reach him at kgorman@tribweb.com or via Twitter @KGorman_Trib.
