Rhode Island
Finals set in Rhode Island Junior Amateur golf tourney. Here’s who’ll play for the titles.
PAWTUCKET — Olivia Williams will bid for a third consecutive title and three fellow finalists will be in search of their first entering the last day of the 105th Rhode Island Junior Amateur.
Lily Dessel, Jesse Hellring and Brayden Dickinson all hope to join the party at Pawtucket Country Club. Thursday’s semifinals saw the top two seeds advance for the girls and the upsets continue for the boys.
More: More drama at the Rhode Island Junior Amateur quarterfinal match play. Here’s what happened.
Williams rallied past Adriana Eaton, 3 and 2, while Dessel won the first two holes on each side to beat Claire McTaggart, 2 up. Hellring won the 16th and 17th holes to top Rocco Capalbo, 3 and 1, while Dickinson survived the final two holes to outlast Ian Dunham, 1 up.
Eaton won the first two holes and three of the first six to hold a 2-up lead before Williams kicked into gear. She made par to take the seventh and birdie to capture the ninth, pulling level at the turn. Williams won four of five holes between the 12th and 16th to close it out, bracketing that stretch with two more birdies.
“I started to come back toward the end of the front nine and I went up on the beginning of the back nine,” Williams said to the Rhode Island Golf Association. “I was just trying to stay focused, play my game and take one shot at a time.”
Williams could see Eaton again next week at the Women’s Amateur. They’ve played for the state’s biggest prizes in recent years, including a meeting in last year’s final and a matchup in the Junior Amateur semifinals. Both are Interscholastic League stars at La Salle Academy and Moses Brown, respectively.
“She’s very good,” Williams said. “It was a tough match today. We definitely have a lot of fun when we play together.”
Dessel reached the quarterfinals in her 2021 debut at this event and has improved her game steadily since then. She never trailed against McTaggart but couldn’t build more than a 2-up lead against her Barrington High teammate and fellow Rhode Island Country Club member. Dessel won the 18th with a routine par to book a spot in her first final.
“It took me a while today to figure out the speed of the greens,” Dessel said. “It was definitely faster than the past couple of days. Once I got that going, I was kind of steady for the rest of the match.”
Hellring’s bogey was good enough to win the par-4 11th, and he carried a 1-up lead to the 16th after halving six of the previous seven. Two straight pars were enough to slip past Capalbo, the reigning Interscholastic League champion who’s fresh off a strong debut at Prout. Hellring avoided the 18th hole for second time in three matches, playing it only during a 1-up win over Joey Iaciofano in the Round of 16.
“Winning this would be great,” Hellring said. “What you get as well — going to the U.S. Junior [Amateur] would be awesome.”
Dickinson was one of the last players to reach match play as the No. 15 seed and has made the most of his chance. He lost the 16th hole with a bogey to trail late, but that’s a minor inconvenience at this point for the North Kingstown standout. Dickinson was sidelined for the end of spring and beginning of summer after suffering an ankle injury in physical education class at school — he’s just now rounding back into form.
“It really put into perspective how much this game means to me, how much I really just love coming out here and competing with the guys and putting together a good score,” Dickinson said. “It was a tough couple months.”
Hellring and Dickinson will open their finals match at 7:30 a.m. Williams and Dessel will have the tee eight minutes later. Two other matches also will go off in the boys first division and boys 14U — Connor Ahlborg and Conner Rabbitt in the first, Aidan Connell and Raj Mammen in the second.
Boys championship
Jesse Hellring def. Rocco Capalbo, 3 and 1; Brayden Dickinson def. Ian Dunham, 1 up.
Girls championship
Olivia Williams def. Adriana Eaton, 3 and 2; Lily Dessel def. Claire McTaggart, 2 up.
Boys first division
Connor Ahlborg def. Luke Cavanaugh, 3 and 1; Conner Rabbitt def. Zachary Taraian, 2 and 1.
Boys 14U
Aidan Connell def. Mitch McTaggart, 3 and 2; Raj Mammen def. Nico Capalbo, 4 and 3.
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On X: @BillKoch25
One of Rhode Island’s “longest-wanted” fugitives was finally arrested this week after 21 years on the run, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
Former Rhode Island doctor Ronald Fischer disappeared during his 2005 trial on a first-degree sexual assault charge, according to the Marshals Service. Fischer was accused of raping a woman aboard his boat, the “Lion King,” in 2003, NBC New York reported.
“He was subsequently convicted in absentia of First-Degree Sexual Assault after failing to appear for trial and remained wanted for Failure to Appear, First Degree Sexual Assault, and Flight to Avoid Prosecution,” the Marshals Service said in a press release Thursday.
Earlier this week, investigators received information about Fischer’s whereabouts that they determined was credible, prompting members of the Rhode Island Violent Fugitive Task Force to deploy to New York.
Investigators determined Fischer was operating a 56-foot sailboat named “The Silver Lining,” which was registered under the name Richard Graydon, an alias authorities said Fischer used. U.S. Marshals and Coast Guard personnel intercepted the vessel about an hour offshore and arrested him without incident.
According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, fingerprints taken from Fischer by the Marshals Service and analyzed by the FBI confirmed that he was the same man on trial for rape charges in Rhode Island 21 years ago.
Books on how to evade law enforcement were found at Fischer’s residence during a search warrant, and it was determined that he was using what’s known as an “onion router” to hide his IP addresses and avoid being tracked, the district attorney’s office said.
Investigators also found emails between Fischer and family members who have been helping him evade law enforcement, according to the district attorney’s office.
Fischer’s capture was a coordinated effort by the Rhode Island Violent Fugitive Task Force, the Marshals Service New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force, the U.S. Marshals Service for the Southern District of New York and the U.S. Coast Guard. The FBI also assisted in the investigation.
“This arrest demonstrates that time does not erase accountability,” said Wing Chau, the U.S. marshal for the District of Rhode Island. “For more than twenty years, Ronald Fischer believed he had successfully escaped justice. The men and women of the Rhode Island Violent Fugitive Task Force, together with our partners, remained committed to ensuring that day would eventually come.”
The victim, Cheryl Gingerich, told NBC 10 in an exclusive interview that news of Fischer’s arrest made her happy.
The trauma of the incident affected nearly every aspect of her life, she said, leaving her afraid to leave her home and forcing her to abandon her career as an English professor.
“I always lived in fear of seeing him again because I never felt that he was far away,” she told the outlet.
Fischer was arraigned in Manhattan on Friday, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which confirmed that he was “remanded and waived extradition.”
It is not clear whether Fischer has an attorney at this time.
(WJAR) — A Rhode Island couple took home a big surprise from their vacation in Florida: a newborn baby.
The two had just arrived in Tampa to go on a cruise, when the mom started having severe abdominal cramps.
She was rushed to the emergency room where doctors broke the news:she was pregnant and the baby was on it’s way.
Neither one even knew they were expecting.
But they said their new baby boy “Sebastian” is a more than welcome souvenir.
Patrol officers were dispatched to the bridge shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday and found a 40-year-old man with stab wounds to his chest, Josh Estrella, the director of communications for the city of Providence, said in an email.
The Providence Fire Department transported the man to Rhode Island Hospital, Estrella said.
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