(Apollo, PA) Maddox Shaffer’s 77 Friday tied for the lowest score in the season-ending Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference championship in which he and his Butler County Community College men’s golf teammates rallied to place second.
The Pioneers cut 26 strokes off their first-round score when posting a tournament low Friday to finish with a 356-330–686 in the championship played for the first time at the par-72 Willowbrook Country Club in Apollo.
The Community College of Allegheny County won the WPCC team title with a 337-333–670 and for the first time since CCAC-South captured the crown in 2012.
Westmoreland County Community College, the 2025 champion by way of a four-stroke edge over BC3, placed third in 2026 with a 348-342–690.
The Pioneers have been WPCC champions 14 times, most recently in 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021.
Allegheny County’s Connor Jacobsen won the WPCC individual title with a 157. Jacobsen led the field with a first-round 77, a low score tied in the second round by Shaffer and Westmoreland County’s Gunnar Shoop.
Shaffer’s 77 was 15 strokes lower than his first-round score and represented his fall-season low. He led the Pioneers by placing fifth with a 92-77-169.
BC3’s Colt Sprankle was one of six golfers named to the WPCC all-conference team based on season scoring averages.
He averaged an 80 and joined by Kayden Lyons, Allegheny County, 75.2; Noah Dubyak, Westmoreland County, 78; Shoop, 78.6; Jacobsen, 79.3; and Allegheny County’s Mack Dempsey, 79.3.
The four lowest scores of golfers on each squad after each round of the WPCC championship are totaled to arrive at a team score.
Dubyak and Shoop tied for second place with 160s, Dubyak with a 78-82 and Shoop with an 83-77. Dempsey was fourth at 80-84—164 and Shaffer fifth.
The Pioneers’ Carter Blystone, who cut nine strokes off his first-round score, ended with a 90-81—171 and tied for sixth with Lyons. Westmoreland County’s Shaun Kovac was eighth with an 85-88—173, Sprankle ninth with an 89-86—175 and BC3’s Brett Bartholow placed 10th with a 90-86—176.
Allegheny County’s Henry Simcox shot a 94-84—178 and was tied for 11th; and Westmoreland County’s Bryan Materkowski was 15th with a 102-95—198.
The Pioneers’ Gannon Brown had an 88-90 and tied Materkowski; and BC3’s Johnnie Mikos finished 14th with an 89-101—190.
Westmoreland County’s Bryn Baluh won her second WPCC women’s individual title with a 110-107—217. BC3’s Leah McClellan placed second with a 126-126—252 and Westmoreland County’s Rachel Ayres third with a 137-129—266.
Shaffer is a graduate of Armstrong High; Sprankle, of Knoch; Brown, McClellan and Blystone, of Butler High; Bartholow, of Connellsville; and Mikos, of Cardinal Mooney, Youngstown.
BC3’s spring season features regional play, regional tournaments and possible national championship appearances where golfers compete for All-American status.