Two Times News area golfers advanced to the District 11 golf championships at Monday's qualifier, held at Olde Homestead Golf Club.

Pleasant Valley's Riley Held and Northwestern's Tyler Wiik will both be competing on Oct. 10 at Locust Valley Golf Club. They will be joined by automatic qualifiers Albert McFadden and Nick Kurzinsky of Marian and Carson Schoener of Tamaqua.Held, with an 84, and Wiik, with an 86, both bettered the Class AAA cut, which ended up being 87."He looked so comfortable, and it was kind of smooth sailing for him," said Pleasant Valley head coach Steve Krechel of Held. "He ended up playing No. 1 for us all season. He got to see the better, quality players on all of the teams. It affected him playing with such good kids, and he learned how to handle himself and play with that type of competition. We got on the bus this morning and I don't think he felt nervous at all."Held started off on fire though the first five holes."My short game was pretty good," said Held. "I was making all of my putts, which helped. I parred the first five holes that were most of the tighter ones on the course. This was definitely one of my goals and I think playing with the best kids all season helped today."Northwestern's Wiik will also continue his season on Oct. 10."Tyler has made a lot of progress in 'tournament golf'," said Northwestern head coach Tim Miller. "It's one thing to go out and play a round of golf with your buddies and your dad, but there isn't really something on the line. Today's situation was 'tournament golf'. It's a totally different mindset. It's not something you're accustomed to. He's really matured a lot in playing this type of golf."The region saw a lot of rain over the weekend, and while the conditions surely played for and against the competitors, they were perfect for Wiik."The thing with Tyler, he's a very strong young fella," said Miller. "He can hit the ball a long way. Fortunately for him, he was hitting accurately today. The course conditions really favored the longer hitters. He didn't make any crazy mistakes. Under the circumstances, I was very proud of him. He was happy for himself too. Now he's playing in the district tournament."Three area golfers were hoping to advance in Class AA, but no one hit the cutoff mark of 90.Palmerton's Kody Kolnik finished with a 92. Despite not advancing, Kolnik's average dropped 13 strokes from a year ago. Also competing in AA were Jim Thorpe's Chris Micciche (97) and Weatherly's Devin Berger (100).IN ACTION ... A total of 79 boys and girls battled to earn a spot in next week's district tournament, as 50 percent of the boys in each class clinched spots.MEDALIST HONORS ... Mahanoy Area's Matt Plucini took medalist honors in AA with an 81, while Nazareth's Collin Seip fired a 75 to gain the top spot in AAA. Stroudsburg's Olivia Patrow (90) was the top girls golfer.District 11 Qualifier(held at Olde Homestead)AA/AAA GIRLS(110 or better advance)Olivia Patrow (Stroudsburg) 90, Olivia Dahlgren (ACC) 95, Leah Coleman (Whitehall) 101, Ellie Wright (ACC) 104, Andi Andrews (ND) 105, Kamryn Felty (Pine Grove) 106, Kate Cogel (ND) 107, Molly Agnello (PM East) 109, Kelsey Hinton (Easton) 110; Megan Schoener (Tamaqua) 144.AAA BOYS(87 or better advance)Collin Seip (Nazareth) 75, Thomas Munshower (ACC) 76, Austin Boyer (Blue Mtn.) 78, Evan Fahs (Nazareth) 79, Thomas Lakata (ACC) 80, Kevin Zimmerman (Parkland) 80, Eric Cichocki (Emmaus) 80, Trevor Buss (Nazareth) 80, Jax Buist (Bangor) 81, Joey Altimose (Liberty) 82, Michael Miller (So. Lehigh) 82, J.D. Shiner (Bangor) 83, Riley Held (PV) 84, Matt Kalamar (ACC) 84, Tom Gaudette (PM West) 86, Ben Hambel (Parkland) 86, Jack Mullaney (Stroudsburg) 86, Tyler Wiik (N'western) 86, Jack Test (ND) 87, Nick Hinkle (Nazareth) 87, Evan Cartwright (Liberty) 87, Luke Lanzone (Emmaus) 87, Andrew Hozza (ND) 87.AA BOYS(90 or better advance)Matt Plucini (MA) 81, Matt McGinley (ND-ES) 82, Luke Reiter (PG) 83, Jordan Donmoyer (NS) 85, Tyler Coyle (Nativity) 88, Peter Chiaradia (MA) 90; Kody Kolnik (Palmerton) 92, Chris Micciche (Jim Thorpe) 97, Devin Berger (Weatherly) 103.