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Prospect likes its downstate prospects

All the work and practices Prospect coach Jim Hamann put his girls golf team through this fall were geared toward seeing his players enjoying their best golf at the end of the season.

With that in mind, the Knights sure must have made their coach proud on Tuesday at Bittersweet Golf Club in Gurnee.

They produced their best team score of the season (330) in some of the toughest conditions of the fall.

With many golfers still having to finish their rounds due to rainy weather suspending play late in the afternoon, all of the results of the Warren Class AA sectional are still unofficial and not yet reported to the IHSA.

Coaches will be alerted early in the morning if play will resume at noon Tuesday. If conditions are still unsuitable, Wednesday would be the finishing day.

Yet to finish their team scores are Barrington, Loyola, Libertyville and Crystal Lake Central.

Unofficially, the leaders are New Trier (323), Prospect (330), Rockford Guilford (348), Carmel (359), Highland Park (359), Deerfield (370), Rockford Boylan (380) and Grayslake North (401).

The top 10 unofficial completed scores thus far belong to Rockford Guilford's Madasyn Pettersen (73), Highland Park's Kelli Ono (75), Prospect's Isabella Flack (79), New Trier's Lois Suh (79), New Trier's Louise McCulloch (80), Prospect's Kacie O'Donnell (81), Deerfield's Lauren Kelsey (81), New Trier's Becca Lindblad (82), New Trier's Lauren Holly (82) and Prospect's Kate Ponzi (83).

Completing the Knights' score card was Emma Dazzo with an 87.

"This is our best score of the season probably in the toughest situation and high-pressured tournament," said Hamann, whose Knights have been fourth, first, second and first at the last four Class AA state finals. "We are very excited about the direction we are going."

Flack is going to be one of the few players to shoot a sub-80 score on the par-72 Bittersweet layout. She had 2 birdies while shooting a 39 on the course's back nine and a 40 on its front.

"I was very proud of how Isabella rebounded from a 95 at the regional (Glencoe Golf Club)," Hamann said. "She played great for 16 holes today. We are very excited about how she is hitting it now."

Flack hit a career-best 13 greens in regulation and felt she could have done better.

"Overall, it was awesome," she said. "I was getting off the tee real well and hitting greens."

O'Donnell scored a 40 on the front and 41 on the back for the Knights second best round.

"Kacie did a great job all day," Hamann said. "Isabella and Kacie have been leading us all season and have done a fantastic job."

Barrington has five players who still need to complete their rounds. One is Mid-Suburban League champ Reena Sulkar, a sophomore who turned in the best nine holes for the Fillies by shooting a 39 on the front side.

Jodi Schoeck, the Fillies Hall of Fame coach, said this is the first time in her 28 seasons where a regional or sectional had to be suspended.

"It's crazy," she said. "We've had rain delays but we've always been able to finish on the same day."

At about 3 p.m. on Monday all the golfers had to leave the course when the lightning detector sounded. Action resumed about 90 minutes later, but hard rains hit to again suspend the action.

Palatine senior Hannah Colbrook is enjoying her first experience in a sectional. She will return today and hopes to come home with a score of under 100. She has a 92 with one hole to play.

"It was the worst rain I've played in," she said. "It wasn't cold but it was hard to grip the clubs. It would be great to break 100. This is a going to be a memory forever."

It's been a memorable season for Carmel, which won its second straight East Suburban Catholic Conference title and was a regional qualifier.

"The kids have had a great season," said Corsairs coach Jill Franz, whose top player on Monday was Alexa Amato (41-43-84).

"That's a great score on this course, not even mentioning the weather conditions," Franz said. "Alexa did a good job managing where she had to be with her shots. The greens were fast and the pin placements were tough, so that made things difficult."

Also among the golfers vying for a trip to the state finals today will be Stevenson's Alexia Fidman, who recorded a 39 on the front nine and has seven holes remaining on the back.

"She is very much in contention for one of the individual qualifying spots," said Patriots coach Tom Dineen.

Prospect will be waiting to learn if it has qualified for a fifth straight trip to the state finals.

"If we get to play another tournament this weekend (Friday and Saturday in Decatur), we'll do our best to have a strong finish," Hamann promised. "Kate Ponzi did a good job for us, too. She has really been swinging the clubs well as of late.

"We are hoping to get an opportunity to play downstate because we love playing at that course (Hickory Point Golf Club)."

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