Prospect extends downstate reign
The rain would not stop at Bittersweet Golf Club in Gurnee on Tuesday.
Neither would Prospect's streak of trips to the Class AA girls golf state finals at the Hickory Point Golf Course in Decatur.
The Knights will pack their bags for the fifth straight time, thanks to the score of 330 they shot on Monday at the Warren sectional.
Loyola, Barrington, Libertyville and Crystal Lake Central were unable to finish their rounds on Monday due to the rain. They took the course in the same wet conditions on Tuesday.
When the scores were finally completed, Prospect's 330 was good for second place behind champion New Trier (323).
"Five in a row," said Prospect coach Jim Hamann, who graduated three Division I players from last year's state championship team. "It doesn't get old. It's a new group every year. It's remarkable for these girls."
Loyola took the third state-qualifying spot with a third-place score of 333, topping fourth-place Libertyville (343) by 10 strokes.
Hamann, assistant Tim Casper and the Knights were back at Bittersweet on Tuesday even though the girls didn't have to swing their clubs.
"We just wanted to be safe in case we didn't qualify as a team and had to have individuals compete in a playoff. And we wanted to be here to support the rest of our conference."
Leading the way individually for Mid-Suburban League golfers was Barrington sophomore Reena Sulkar.
The MSL champ shot a 77 to tie for third place with Lake Forest's Emily Young.
Other area qualifiers were Fremd junior Haezi Jung (79), Vernon Hills senior Kari Lee (80), Libertyville sophomore Simone Mikaelian (81), Libertyville senior Jessica Lovinger (81) and Fremd junior JaeHee Hur (81).
Only a sophomore, Sulkar is headed to Decatur for the second straight time.
She shot a 39 on her front nine Monday and finished her back with a 2-over 38.
Sulkar had five holes left on Tuesday and birdied two of them, giving her four for the round.
"The last five holes were pretty tough," Sulkar said. "The rain would not stop. It just made it hard judging the speed of the greens. Overall, I'm happy considering the conditions."
"Reena is a remarkable player," said Barrington coach Jodi Schoeck. "Making birdies with the casual water on the greens is amazing. She came up clutch in big moments."
Jung and Hur will compete in Decatur for the first time.
"It was an all-out effort," said Vikings coach Christine Vlaming. "It's awesome. They battled and I'm so proud of them. It was really crazy conditions and they went out there and did their thing. It was fun to watch."
Libertyville coach Greg Pedersen will also watch two of his players on the big stage.
Mikaelian will make her second visit to the state finals while Lovinger debuts at Hickory Point.
"It's fantastic," Pedersen said. "We've had a really deep team all season so it's nice to see some individuals in the spotlight.
"We finished fourth, 10 strokes back of Loyola, so the team played really well. And we won our regional so I'm really proud of the team."
And he is proud of his state qualifiers.
"They both deserve it," Pedersen said. "They've worked hard. Playing in these conditions, they shot good scores. It's nice to see the individual accolades after getting a lot of team accolades."
Vernon Hill's Lee became the Cougars' first state qualifier in 10 years.
"For these conditions, it was her best round for 18 holes," said veteran Vernon Hills coach Jim Seward of the Cougars' No. 1 golfer the last two seasons. "An 80 was like shooting a 75."
Prospect was shooting its best of the season.
The Knights outdid their previous season-best score of 332 at the MSL meet.
Sophomore Kate Ponzi's round of 83 on Monday was her season best.
"We had talked a lot about the long shot mindset and I really used that," Ponzi said her round in which she hit five fairways and was only slightly off on the other holes. "And the rough was not that bad just off the fairway."
"Everyone has worked so hard all season," added senior Kacie O'Donnell, whose score of 81 was added to Isabella Flack's 79, Ponzi's 83 and Emma Dazzo's 87 for the Knights' second-place total. "And everyone started playing their best toward the end of the season."
That is just how Hamann hoped his team would progress.
"Our regional was so tough and this sectional, too," he said. "Nothing is guaranteed. For any team to make it out is quite an accomplishment. And any individual, too."
Conant sectional: Conditions did not allow for a four-way playoff to decide the final individual state qualifying berth in the Class AA Conant girls golf sectional at Fox Run in Elk Grove on Tuesday.
That means the four players who tied with 83 after Monday's round will all advance to this weekend's state tournament.
Those players are senior Erin Walz (Elk Grove), freshman Samantha Moody (Glenbard West), junior Josie Kurosky (Burlington Central) and freshman Nicole Hansen (Lake Park).