High School Sports: Laurel Prep Roundup

Emily Kwak of Laurel travelled a lot of miles and played many rounds of golf to get back to Maryland. But she has made it.

Kwak is now a senior on the women's golf team at Towson University and earlier this month she became the first golfer in the five-year history of the program to win a tournament.

While living in North Laurel, Kwak made the drive to Rockville to attend elementary and middle school at Montrose Christian. She then went to Florida to attend Bradenton Prep Academy, which allowed her to concentrate on golf while also graduating from high school. She attended David Ledbetter's IMG Golf Academy in Florida.

Kwak then played two years of junior college golf in Oklahoma before landing a spot with Division I Towson as a junior last academic year. She began this season with the individual title as Towson won the Lonnie Barton Memorial Invitational in Savannah, Ga. Kwak shot a two-round total of 152 and her final round of 75 was a Towson career-best, as was her 36-hole total of 152.

"I really didn't look at other schools," said Kwak, who helped lead Redlands of Oklahoma to two junior college national titles. "I mainly wanted to come home. College Park (and Maryland) was too big for me. I was used to a small community at Redlands."

Kwak is majoring in art with a concentration in photography. She is on track to graduate in the fall and then plans to move to Florida and train for a shot at the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Futures Tour.

One of her teammates at Towson is junior Airielle Dawson, who attended Laurel High as a freshman before transferring to Charles H. Flowers in Prince George's County.

Pallotti baseball wins first two games

The St. Vincent Pallotti High baseball team won on Monday, 11-4, over host St. John's Catholic Prep. The next day Pallotti, playing at home in West Laurel, won 13-0 over Perry Hall Christian of suburban Baltimore. The Panthers have several returning juniors this year who are starters, including Nate Spicher.

"Last year was a learning year," said Spicher, who saw action in the outfield and third base in the first two games. "We had mostly sophomores. This year should be great. We brought back six sophomore starters. We should do a lot better. We have hit the ball a lot better that we did at the beginning of last year."

Other key players for the Panthers are Corey Dirks, Matt DeFrank, Johnny Maloney and Raffi Correa, the quarterback for the football team. The head coach is Pat Courtemanche. DeFrank and Steve Martin had two hits each in the win over St. John's Catholic Prep, and Correa added two RBIs. Dirks was the winning pitcher as he threw a complete game and fanned 10.

Spicher had three hits in three at bats with five RBIs in the win over Perry Hall Christian. Maloney was the winning pitcher as he went three innings in a game that was stopped after five innings due to the slaughter rule.

Rowland with pro team in France

Austen Rowland, a 1999 graduate of St. Vincent Pallotti, is playing pro basketball in France. He is with Le Portel and in his first 13 games this season he averaged 12.7 points per game.

Rowland played in college as a guard at Delaware and Lehigh and was the Patriot League player of the year in 2004 as he led Lehigh to the Patriot League title and a berth in the NCAA tournament. He has also played pro ball in Austria and Germany in a pro career that began seven years ago.

David Potter, a former student at Laurel High, signed last month with a pro basketball team in Lithuania, according to www.eurobasket.com. Potter ended his college career last year with Clemson, which appeared on Tuesday in the NCAA tourney.

Potter averaged six points per game in his first three outings in Lithuania. He graduated from a high school in Florida after transferring from Laurel High.