St. Viator, Schaumburg and Conant earn sectional appearances
The ten teams competing Tuesday at Hilldale Golf Club in the boys Class 3A regional weren't exactly unfamiliar with one another.
Nine of the squads came from the Mid-Suburban League while another local school, St. Viator from the East Suburban Catholic Conference, rounded out the field.
So naturally that familiarity - along with playing all season against a top level of competition - helped breed success for many of the players, especially Matt Trimberger and John Carlson of the Lions.
The Viator junior standouts tied for the low score of the day, each shooting 75 to lead the Lions to first place in the team race with a 312 and a berth in next Monday's New Trier sectional.
Carlson edged out his good friend Trimberger in a one-hole playoff to earn medalist honors.
"I wanted to be patient today," said Carlson. "It was a challenge, but we were up to it. Now we've got to carry this over into next week."
Schaumburg earned the second sectional qualifying spot by carded a 326, while Conant (334) finished third to also earn the right to compete at Winnetka Golf Club next week, where berths at the state finals in Bloomington will be at stake.
The Cougars' advancement was a surprise to some, but certainly not to senior Jake Jones, who along with classmate Tyler Kudla led the way by firing an 81 in Hoffman Estates.
"We had a slow start this year," said Jones. "I think we came in 10th (out of 12 teams) at the conference tournament, but I knew we had the talent to shoot low. We came out here today and put it all together.
"I know this was something that not many people expected, but we didn't let that bother us."
Junior Eric Schaeffer and senior Jason Doering earned individual sectional spots for host Fremd, but the Vikings came away a bit disappointed that they didn't qualify as a team.
"Our scores were higher than I'd thought they'd be," said Vikings coach Ryan Moreau. "Eric and Jason have been steady all year, but maybe we expected too much today playing on our home course.
"We had high expectations, but there might have been a little too much pressure."
Fremd tied Palatine for fourth with a 341, while Buffalo Grove took sixth place by shooting 357.
Dan Coleman (82) of the Pirates shot his way into a position at the sectional, as did other individual qualifiers Jon D'Amico (83) of Hoffman Estates, Tom Broders (83) from Palatine, Kyle Kornblum (84) of Rolling Meadows.
Other individual places at New Trier were earned by Hersey's Max Heeren, who carded an 85, Tommy Peterson of Fremd who finished at 86, and Mike Vitucci of Palatine, who also had an 86.
Senior Brandon Tudor paced Schaumburg's stellar day with a 76, just 1 stroke behind the leaders.
"I struggled early today," said Tudor, who shot his best ever score "but I found myself on the back nine. Play was a little slow so I had some time to think about my shots, and I felt more comfortable after the break."
Miguel Go (78), Nick Tudor (84) and Justin Lorenz (88) counted scores for the Saxons, while Kevin Andjulis and Christopher Blaha each shot 86 for Conant, and Nick Carlson pitched in with a 79 for Viator while teammate Liam Warner shot 83.
Wheeling senior Jake Jordan shot 85 to earn his first sectional berth.
"I was confident," said Jordan. "I came out here and had fun, and I wasn't stressing out. I had some good approach shots to the greens today and that put me in position to make some putts."