Girls golf: Things are looking up for Barrington golfers

The Barrington girls golfers began the week looking at a historic event.

They finished the week on Thursday looking at an undefeated record of 4-0 in the Mid-Suburban League.

The defending champs carded a 155 at the Palatine Hills Golf Course to defeat Prospect (164) and host Pirates (203) in the tri-meet.

Just three days earlier, the Fillies were wearing the special glasses for the solar eclipse as they competed in their own Lake County Invite at Bonnie-Dundee Golf Course in Carpentersville.

"It was so cool walking down the fairway," said Fillies junior Nicole Ciskowski, who earned medalist honors on Thursday with a par 36 on the first nine holes. "We put the glasses on a couple of times during the first two holes and it was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life."

She experienced quite a solid round on Thursday, recording 7 pars, a birdie and a bogey.

"I was happy," said Ciskowski, a regional champion last fall. "It was a little tough with the wind but it felt pretty good. I hit my driver and irons really well so that helped."

Fillies sophomore Caroline Smith was right behind shooting a 37 followed by teammates Stephanie Su (38), Olivia Lee (44) and Ishani Majmudar (44).

Barrington (4-0) was coming off a win at Makray Memorial on Wednesday over Wheeling and Rolling Meadows.

"It's quite a grind (three events in four days) but it's better to do it now and have some rest when we come down to crunchtime of the regionals and sectionals. We're getting used to it."

Fillies coach Jodi Schoeck purposely loaded her schedule with three tournaments in the first two weeks of the season.

"We wanted them to come out firing right away and get them tournament-tough right from the beginning," said Schoeck, who led the Fillies to second place in the Class AA state tourney last fall. "We wanted to continue with the 18-holes tourney they had been playing all summer. But now that we're in conference play, the younger girls don't really understand yet the importance of these dual and tri meets. They've got to get tournament ready for these nine-holers because they don't have as many holes to make up for bad shots."

Prospect's best shots were the ones headed toward the green.

"We hit a lot of good approach shots," said Knights coach Jim Hamann, who has led team to two state crowns and a runner-up in the Class AA tourney. "We prepared very well for this event. What hurt us today was out putting so we will address that,"

The Knights (1-1) were led by Margherite Pettenuzzo, Emily Fleming and Amanda Stein, who all shots 40s while Allison Buck chipped in a 44 for the fourth score.

"We got everything we could have asked of our of our No. 4 golfer today (Stein)," Hamann said. "Amanda had a 40 and we're going to build off that. We're going to continue to improve throughout the season learn some things from today. I'm happy with how we prepared. We just didn't get it done on the greens."

"We all just went out and did our best," said Fleming, a junior who parred six holes.

The Knights won seven straight MSL crowns before Barrington took the title a year ago.

"Barrington has a very, very talented group of girls, a great program and a great coach," Hamann said. "We'll see them down the road again. We'll address the things we have to work on and hope we can get close to them next time."

Palatine senior Jenny Myslinski led the Pirates (0-4) with a 41, followed by Megan Fortunato (52), Ariel Blanchard (53) and Victoria Simons (57).

Considering an 8 on the par 4, No. 5 hole followed by a bogey On No. 6, Myslinski's 41 was not all that bad.

"Those two holes messed up," said the Pirates' ace, who also plays basketball. "Take away those two holes and it was a great round. You win some, you lose some. It was a good day. I had fun."

And it was a fun week for the Fillies, who are off and rolling with four straight wins in the MSL.

"I like it, this is fantastic," Schoeck said of the quick start. "I told the girls to enjoy it but now we have things to work on and that's what we need to start doing (Friday)."

And, of course, her girls witnessed some history on Monday.

"I wish it would have been a little sunnier so girls could have seen how spectacular it really can look," Schoeck added. "But they had a chance to look at what was happening and I hope they remember it forever because it was a neat day."

Wheeling wins two: Junior Adrienne Rohwedder earned medalist honors (38) and her sister Samantha, a sophomore, shot a 51 to lead the Wildcats (201) past Hersey (203) and Hoffman Estates (235) at the Old Orchard Country Club (par 36).

Elena Falkiner (53) and Cindy Dang (59) rounded out the scorecard for Wheeling (3-1).

Hersey (1-1)) was led by Claire Rogowski (49), Mara Slosar (50), Krista Thur (51) and Kelly Hannon (53) while top scorers for Hoffman (0-2) were Katarina Ott-Durkin (50) and Christina Wood (53).