PIAA golf season preview 2025: Meet Butler County’s Top 8 boys and girls golfers to watch
North Catholic’s boys golf team returns several key pieces from last year’s district championship squad, as does a girls team that took home bronze.
Karns City loses one of the area’s best female golfers, Chloe Fritch, and Freeport returns a senior in Ethan Crooks looking to finally nab a spot in states.
The 2025 PIAA golf season begins Thursday and concludes in mid-October, with Butler County athletes looking to make improvements to lower their nine-hole average, make districts and maybe even head east for the PIAA championships.
Here are the top six boys and top two girls in alphabetical order, plus some extras to consider, to watch on the links this season:
Ethan Crooks, sr., Freeport: Crooks is seeking to make a third straight WPIAL Class 2A Individual Golf Championships appearance. He finished tied for 26th last year in the district meet at 24 over, six shots off the qualifying score to make the PIAA Individual Golf Championships. That came during a season in which he shot a team-best 38.4 on average for nine holes and scored a 74 in the Yellowjackets’ WPIAL team tournament appearance.
Ben Kandravy, sr., North Catholic: Kandravy's 87 helped the Trojans win the WPIAL Class 2A Team Boys Golf Championship title by a single stroke with a collective 419. He topped that in the individual meet, shooting 18 over to qualify for states as the final WPIAL golfer. He finished tied for 59th at 24 over in the state individual tournament, then shot an 84 in the team tournament to help North finish fifth with a 316.
Marcos Lopez, sr., Seneca Valley: After Lopez finished tied for 34th at the WPIAL 3A individual meet at 22-over, there’s hope for a bigger year. According to Raiders head coach Dean Leventopoulos, he’ll be coming off a strong summer circuit where he won two Isaly tournament matches and came in second during another, and won the Wildwood High School Match Play Invitational last month.
Levi McClellan, jr., Butler: McClellan was among the top Butler County Class 3A golfers at the WPIAL championships last season, finishing 29th at 19 over as a sophomore.
Lukas Singh, sr., Mars: Singh finished second-best among Butler County golfers at the WPIAL Class 3A tournament, shooting 17 over to finish 23rd, including a first round score of 79.
Joe Rapp, sr., A-C Valley/Union: The second Butler County area boys golfer to make an appearance at the PIAA Individual Golf Championships, either classification, Rapp finished 50th at states at 18 over. That included a solid 79 on Day 2. He also shot a total of 158 at the District 9 championships to finish tied for fifth, qualifying for states.
Others in consideration: Anthony Cardosi, sr., Seneca Valley; Christopher Faber, jr., North Catholic; Joey O’Donnell, sr., Karns City
Izzy Engleka, sr., North Catholic: Engleka could be knocking on the state door this season after she finished 14th at WPIALs last year (plus-60). She and Riley Kontul, see below, led the Trojanettes to the WPIAL Class 2A Team Championship, where they finished third with a score of 406 behind Shady Side Academy and Greensburg Central Catholic.
Riley Kontul, so., North Catholic: The lone returning area girls golfer to make the state tournament, Kontul is an “extremely talented female golfer, especially for her age,” head coach Jennifer Campbell said. She finished fifth at the WPIAL 2A tournament at 41 over, then came in 23rd at the PIAA championships.
Others in consideration: Juliette Brown, jr., Moniteau; Hayden Hillard, jr., Moniteau; Makenna Myler, sr., Mars; Elise Wadas, so., Mars
