St. Viator cooled off in ESCC tourney

Saint Viator coach Jack Halpin said his team was “red hot” heading into Thursday’s East Suburban Catholic League boys golf championship tournament at the Links at Carillon in Plainfield.

Unfortunately for the Lions though, they didn’t play up to their usual high standards — and another ESCC team turned out be even hotter.

Carmel fired a 299 to overtake Viator and win its second conference crown in three years.

The Corsairs, as well as Benet, trailed the Lions in the standings heading into the meet but Carmel’s tourney winning performance led the to the crown.

Viator (321) stumbled to a fourth-place finish at meet, ending the regular season in third place in the ESCC behind the Corsairs and Redwings.

“Sometimes you just don’t play good,” said Halpin, whose team was looking for its second consecutive ESCC crown and seventh in the last 11 years. “I have no explanation for it, but that’s golf.”

Luke De Trempe (11th place individually) and Robert Renner (14th) led the three-time state champs by posting rounds of 79, and Halpin said the superior performance by Carmel lessened the disappointment of his players.

“That 299 they (Carmel) shot took a lot of the sting out of it,” said the coach. “I give them all the credit in the world, but we’re a much better team than we showed today.

“We’re fairly young — we’ve got two juniors and two sophomores — and the good thing is that we’ve got regionals coming soon and we’ll be ready.”