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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
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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Rhode Island
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:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(749x0:751x2)/Scott-Naso-022526-1-079e2e33c43a473590695ebdb06147b3.jpg?ssl=1 "Single Dad Says Grandparents’ Rights Trial Has Cost Him More Than 0K, but He'll Do ‘Whatever It Takes’ to Keep Daughter Safe")
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