As a freshman on the Greater Latrobe High School golf team four years ago, Ben Gjebre found himself in a pressure situation.

Penciled into the starting lineup for the first time, the lanky left-hander stepped to the first tee against Yough at Latrobe Country Club when he noticed Arnold Palmer sitting in a nearby cart, watching intently.

"As I got ready to swing, I thought, 'Oh God, please let me hit it straight,'" he said. "I mean, this was Arnold Palmer, the man who revolutionized the sport and made it what it is today. I felt like I had to make the greatest shot of my life.

"Thankfully, I hit it up the middle."

Since then, Gjebre, now a senior, has handled all kinds of pressure on the golf course, most recently Monday and Tuesday at the PIAA boys' individual and team championships, where he finished in a six-way tie for ninth at the 6,628-yard, par 71 Heritage Golf Resort in York.

Pacing his team with a solid 73-75-148, he helped the Wildcats to the PIAA team championship.

It was a memorable end to the season for Gjebre, who earlier in the month stunned Central Catholic's Corey Wagner at blustery Butler Country Club to win the WPIAL individual boys' championship and give Latrobe its first WPIAL team title.

Competing in misty 40-degree temperatures and occasional 40-mph gusts, his victory was as shocking as it was improbable. After three-putting to bogey the 17th hole, Gjebre walked toward the 18th tee one stroke behind Wagner, who had put the clubs away two hours earlier following his two-over-par round of 73. Knowing he was behind and needing a birdie to tie, Gjebre addressed the ball, coiled on his backswing and swung.

"I cut it pretty bad," he said. "I hit it almost on the first fairway, which paralleled 18 and had about 190 yards to go."

Gjebre, however, grabbed his six-iron and hooked the ball over the trees on his second shot, landing 30 feet from the pin. What happened next sucked the air out of the Butler clubhouse and forced Wagner outdoors to face the course -- and the elements -- once more.

"My putt was pretty straight, maybe breaking a foot to the left," said Gjebre. "When I hit it, I didn't think it would get there. But somehow it kept rolling and went in. I couldn't believe it."

As for evicting the Vikings' senior from his toasty confines and defeating him on the second hole of the sudden death playoff, Gjebre was succinct: "It couldn't have been a good feeling [for Wagner]."

Gjebre's victory earned Latrobe its fourth WPIAL individual boys' championship in school history, a feat accomplished twice by Palmer in 1946 and 1947 and, most recently, Kevin Reisenweaver in 1986.

For third-year head coach Scott Reaugh, seeing his team leader grab the WPIAL crown -- and spur his teammates on to victory -- was not terribly surprising.

"Ben hits the ball a long way," Reaugh explained. "He has a smooth swing and a style that reminds me of Phil Mickelson. He tries to hit it as far as he can and if it doesn't go straight, he scrambles well. He doesn't play afraid."

As a team, Latrobe stunned favorite Penn-Trafford to win the WPIAL Division I team title before placing second at the Western Region tournament in Blairsville on Oct. 21 to qualify for the four-team PIAA finals.

"Coming into this season, I didn't really know what to expect," said Reaugh, who replaced four of his top six players from last year's team due to graduation. "I thought we could make the playoffs and that Penn-Trafford would be the team to beat [in section play]. But from the get-go, we got on a roll and played very well.

In addition to Gjebre (whose list of colleges includes Allegheny and Villanova in state, plus High Point and Campbell in the Carolinas), Latrobe's PIAA contingent included senior Sam Cline (whose father, Tom, won the PIAA boys' crown in 1979), junior Dylan Marshall, and freshman Will Wears who, fittingly, is the grandson of Palmer.

Gjebre -- an ambidextrous athlete who shoots right-handed as a member of the Wildcats' basketball team -- credited his success this season with his added distance off the tee.

"The last two years, I've gotten another 30 or 40 yards off my driver and my irons," he said. "It took me a while to tone it and get a tempo to my swing, but I was playing my best golf this season when it was needed most.

"I just go up there, pick out a target and hit it. I don't waste too much time thinking about things," he said, noting that he no longer worries about playing in front of Palmer.

"He's actually a really approachable guy."

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