Girls golf: Smith, Barrington right on par
Defending Mid-Suburban League girls golf champion Barrington made its longest conference road trip of the season on Tuesday to face host Hersey and Schaumburg at Rob Roy Golf Course in Prospect Heights.
"This is one of those courses where you have to really think your way around," said Fillies coach Jodi Schoeck. "You can't take anything for granted. You've got to throttle back, not hit your driver all the time and our girls really fought their way around the course."
The fighting Fillies negotiated the layout with their best nine-hole score of the season, compiling a 152 to defeat the Saxons (177) and Huskies (185).
Leading the winners were sophomore medalist Caroline Smith (par 36), junior Ishani Majmudar (38), junior and Wisconsin recruit Nicole Ciskowski (39) and senior Maggie Hoffman (39).
Also shooting in the 30s were Schaumburg senior Trinity Corwin (38) and Hersey senior Claire Rogowski (season-best 39).
Corwin's 38 helped lead the Saxons to second place, giving them a record of 2-2 in the MSL West.
Teammate Jennifer Cappello contributed a 40 followed by Cheyenne Harris (45) and Erykah Walton (54).
Corwin shot a 69 this past summer in tournament action.
She credited her 5-iron with helping her game on Tuesday.
"It helped me quite a bit because I was pulling it off the tee more than anything and my putting was really helping, too." she said. "This was one of my better nine-hole rounds over my four years. This was a cute little course. A little shorter than I expected but still tight, so always challenging.
"It's been a great season so far. We did pretty well as a team at the Early Bird Invite to start the season as a team and been coming together as a team."
"We've had strong finishes this season," said Saxons coach Michelle Hinojosa. "Definitely our top three players are strong and my four, five and six are coming up. And we've got two juniors who we hope to see good things from. Our best score so far has been 164 but anything under 180 right now and we're looking pretty good."
Rogowski (4 pars, 1 birdie) and the Huskies were looking at their first chance to play on their home course.
Playing in the No. 1 group, Rogowski stepped up impressively.
Her round was lifted by a pair of up-and-downs.
"I think most important aspect of golf is the short game because any good golfer knows you spend most of your time within 100 yards of the pin," said Rogowski, also a varsity basketball player. "So to be able to focus on that and develop my short game is imperative to success. The up-and-down chips and putts were very key and allowed me to do my best."
Rogowski's effort hardly went unnoticed by Hersey coach Dan Vesper.
"It was awesome for Claire," he said. "She really deserves it. She puts in a lot of work and she is very happy today, especially because she had not been playing up to her potential so this was what her potential is.
"It was a good eye-opener for her to see that she can shoot a 39 and compete with some of the top girls in the area."
Krista Thuer (43), Casey Byer (50) and Renae Curtis (53) completed the score card for the Huskies (1-3).
Smith's even-par score started out with a bogey on the first hole but it led to her best nine-hole round of the season.
"It was a very interesting round," said the defending MSL conference champ. "A double bogey, bogey and 3 birdies. But my putting was on all day so that helped a lot. The greens were a little slow (rained earlier in the day) but in good shape."
Smith said the round provided her with some needed confidence.
"I haven't been playing well lately and I've been practicing a lot," she said. "So to be able to apply the practice to the course, now I can really see that the work is paying off."
The Fillies, off to a 6-0 start, plan to keep working hard under Schoeck.
"We're 6-0, but what does that really mean?" said the Hall of Fame coach. "We just have to keep giving a good effort and see what happens."
Prospect wins two: Prospect sophomore Kelly Kavanagh earned medalist honors with a 36 at the Highland Woods Golf Course in Hoffman Estates as the Knights (162) defeated Buffalo Grove (177) and host Hoffman Estates (243).
Completing the scoring for the Knights (3-1) were Margheite Pettenuzzo (41), Emily Fleming (42) and Amanda Stein (42).
The Bison (3-1) were led by Haeri Lee (37), Jasmin Yi (39), Alisha Patel (50) and Riley Donahue (51).
Pacing the Hawks (0-4) were Christina Wood and Katerina Ott-Durkin with 52s.
Conant takes two: Senior Lina Jang shot a three-over-par 38 to earn medalist honors and help Conant (166) to wins over Palatine (201) and Rolling Meadows (207) at the Fox Run Golf Course in Elk Grove.
Alyssa Brand chipped in a 40 for the host Cougars (2-0) while Michelle Zhang and Nimra Syed each added 44s.
Jenny Myslinski led Palatine (1-5) with a 45 followed by teammates Meghan Fortunato (48), Olivia Radtke (53), Ariel Blanchard (55) and Victoria Simons 55. Nicole Von Oesen (48) and Natalie Anderson (52) led the Mustangs (0-4).