December 6 – Athlete of the Month: Carys Fennessy, Dover golfer
Carys Fennessy set this goal four years ago, knowing that only the golfer she admired growing up had ever done it.
The Dover High School senior achieved that goal last month, when she became the second golfer in NHIAA history to win the girls’ individual championship four straight times.
Lauren Thibodeau, who Fennessy considers a mentor, was the first to accomplish this feat, winning the tournament from 2014 to 2017 while attending Pinkerton Academy.
“It’s been really cool – something I’ve been talking about for a while,” Fennessy said. “It’s pretty cool to see my banner in the high school gym.”
Fennessy also won her second consecutive New England High School girls golf championship in October.
His triumphs in the NHIAA and New England tournaments earned him the New Hampshire Union Leader Apple Therapy Services/Bedford Ambulatory Surgical Center/Express MED Athlete of the Month award for November from the Leader’s Board of Judges of the Union.
Fennessy, the two-time defending New Hampshire women’s amateur champion, won the NHIAA women’s individual title with an 8-under-par 135 (68-67) in two rounds at Beaver Meadow Golf Course in Concord last month. The first round took place on October 5 and the second on October 19.
Runner-up Mady Savary, a sophomore at Bishop Brady High School, shot a score of 142-under (72-70).
“The first day I didn’t think I played as well as I wanted to, so I worked over the next couple of weeks to get that score to where it needed to be,” Fennessy said. “I spent a lot of time on putting and I think that was a big part of my last round. My short game was really good and I was able to make a lot of birdies.”
Fennessy, who will play at College of Charleston in South Carolina next year, had four birdies in the first round and six in the second.
Fennessy, last year’s Athlete of the Month for August, said she learned to focus on putting and her short game in the fall. The Cochecho Country Club member’s long game isn’t always where she wants it to be due to the fact that she plays less this season than in the summer.
The back nine at Beaver Meadow has always been “awesome” for Fennessy, she said, but she has learned that holes Nos. 10 through 12 are the best chances for birdies before a tough stretch of three straight holes : 14, 15 and 16.
“The front is pretty simple,” Fennessy said. “If you make a few bogeys and a few birdies, you’re in pretty good shape to go on defense. Ten, 11, 12 are pretty good. Thirteen, you can get another birdie and then you have to concentrate a lot in the final line RIGHT.”
To cap off her senior high school season, Fennessy won the New England High School girls’ golf championship with a score of 70-under at Mohegan Sun Golf Course in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Fennessy remembers the day in late October being freezing and incredibly windy, making the round mentally difficult.
“I started off with a bogey on the first hole and that settled me in a weird way because I had eliminated that mistake,” Fennessy said. “Then I had a number of pared holes and made three birdies in a row in the middle of my round and then finished with a bogey. It was a really strange day.”
Fennessy didn’t hit her driver as well as she wanted, but figured out her irons on the back nine, where she made her streak of birdies and took the lead for good.
Lillian Guleserian, a senior at Westwood (Mass.) High School, was the runner-up, finishing two shots behind Fennessy with a 1-over 72. Gulesarian led Fennessy by two shots at the turn.
“It was a different day for me,” Fennessy said. “That’s not usually how things happen.”
The high school season is more relaxed than Fennessy’s summer tournament schedule. She enjoyed that and the team aspect, which is absent from golf outside of high school and college competition.
With a Dover team full of freshmen this fall, Fennessy always encouraged her teammates and gave them advice on how they could improve their game.
“I would like to see the program continue to be successful after I leave,” she said. “I just think golf is such a great game and I think everyone should love it as much as I do.”
Other athletes considered for the October award were Mascenic Regional golfer Josiah Hakala, Salem High School football player Kevin Todisco, Hillsboro-Deering High School football player Robert King, Bedford High School Mikita Barry, Hopkinton High School boys soccer player Nolan Linstad and Plymouth State University field hockey player Taylor Healey.
Hakala, a home-schooled senior but representing Mascenic in NHIAA competition, won his fourth consecutive NHIAA Division IV men’s golf individual championship by shooting a 10-under 134 over two rounds at Beaver Meadow Golf Club in October.
Todisco, a senior running back, rushed for 718 yards and eight touchdowns on 90 carries during a 4-0 NHIAA Division I campaign in October for Salem.
King, a junior running back, totaled 522 rushing yards, 12 touchdowns and a two-point conversion on 31 carries during a 2-1 NHIAA Division IV run in October for Hillsboro-Deering.
Barry, a junior, won the NHIAA Division I women’s championship, Battle of the Border and Pelham Invitational races in October.
Linstad, a junior forward, had 10 goals and two assists as Hopkinton went 6-0-1 in its seven October games, including its 4-0 victory in the first round of the Division tournament III against Bishop Brady.
Healey, a graduate student from Campton, had 11 goals and two assists during an Oct. 6-3 campaign for Division III Plymouth State.
Previous 2024 winners: January, Zach James, Pelham (basketball); February, Anika Scott, Bedford (indoor track); March, Jackson Marshall, Hooksett (basketball); April, Anthony Paolicelli, Henniker (baseball); May, Emma Wheeler, Meredith (heptathlon); June, Elisabeth Kearney, Londonderry (softball); July, Owen Carey, Londonderry (baseball); August, Pat Pelletier, Lebanon (golf); September, Sally Rainey, Lebanon (soccer).
To submit a nomination for a future Athlete of the Month, email the Union Leader Sports Department at [email protected] and enter “Athlete of the Month” in the subject line.
