St. Charles North, Barrington moving on
Lexie Harkins and Larisa Luloff each shot 74s that carried the Crystal Lake Central co-op to a the Class AA Prairie Ridge girls golf regional title on Wednesday at Prairie Isle in Crystal Lake.
Harkins, though, needed one extra hole to take medalist honors over Luloff with a birdie.
Crystal Lake Central finished with a total of 321, 6 shots better than St. Charles North (327) and Barrington (338), which settled for third.
Those three teams and the top ten individuals not on a qualifying team will take part in the Rockford Guilford sectional Monday at Ingersoll Golf Course in Rockford.
Harkins started her day with a birdie and finished the same way on the par-5, 465-yard first hole in a playoff. She nearly reached the green in two and was off it by a couple of feet. Harkins then hit a wedge on her third shot below the hole and left herself a 10-foot putt. She calmly put it in for the birdie.
“It was pretty exciting to have a playoff against your own teammate,” said Harkins, who will be playing golf at North Carolina next year. “The best shot was the putt at the end, because of the pressure.
“I thought I played pretty well for the day. I really didn’t putt that well during the round. I thought I left a few shots out there.”
Luloff, a Cary-Grove student, reached the green in three. She had her shot at birdie from 20 feet that just missed the edge of the cup and she tapped in for par.
“I’m ok with it and happy to get second,” Luloff said. “I did bogey that hole when I started, so I improved on it. My goal was to beat Lexie once this year, but there’s still some time.”
Crystal Lake Central was led by Harkins and Luloff with the 74s on the par 73, 5,438-yard course. The Tigers also counted scores from Emily Jean (85) and Brianna DiGrazia (88).
“This year’s team is much deeper,” said Crystal Lake Central coach Kathy Speaker, whose team finished eighth at state last year without Harkins. “Just having one more piece makes a big difference.
“Actually, the girls really don’t like to play (Prairie Isle) but this was the best they’ve played here. Not sure if its because we play Prairie Ridge here, we’re usually neck-and-neck in our conference.”
St. Charles North had outstanding scores from Gianna Furrie and Kate Lillie, who each posted 78. Carly Hudon (85) and Jessica Grill (86) also helped the North Stars reach the sectional.
“It was good to see my freshman play this well,” St. Charles North coach Chris Patrick said of Furrie and Lillie. “They really weren’t aware of the atmosphere. I thought the course played tough today. I thought the back nine played tougher than the front nine. You just had to be patient with the length of the round.”
Barrington found its way to the sectional in the final spot. Reena Sulkar led the way with a 77, Kelly Umphred had an 85, Allie Quinn 86 and Bailee McDonald 90.
“We got through and that’s been our goal from the beginning,” Barrington coach Jodi Schoeck said. “We wanted to get back as a team. We did have enough practice rounds and knew what shots we needed to hit. There wasn’t too much wind out here. We just stuck to the game plan.”
Brooke Johnson of Prairie Ridge advanced individually with a 97 but wanted a better outcome,
“I was disappointed with my score and didn’t play my best,” Johnson said. “It’s good enough to get through. Last year, I made it with my team. My drives (Wednesday) were hurting my and my putting could be significantly better.”
Other individuals that advanced were St. Charles East’s Darby Crane (91), Mary Ellen Combs (100), Reagan Stanton (103) and Kacie Gaffney (104). Marian Central’s Sophia Archos (89), Kenzie Mocogni (101) and Emily Johnson (105) advanced as did Kailey Lindholm of McHenry with an 89 and Jacobs’ Sydney Goll with a 105.
“I was coming into this thinking that I didn’t have a chance,” said Goll, a sophomore. “This will be the first time. I actually started golf last year as a freshman and just started to get serious about it.”