Saints unhappy slipping to third
Neuqua Valley thought so little of its chance to win the Upstate Eight Conference boys golf championship, it didn't even take any practice rounds at St. Andrews Golf and Country Club prior to Thursday's league tournament.
The Wildcats were wrong.
Needing several things to go their way, the Wildcats got every one of them, first winning the UEC tournament on the fifth-score tiebreaker to slip past Bartlett after each team carded a 311.
Then they watched as the Waubonsie Valley and St. Charles East scores were posted. Those schools, which entered the tournament tied for first based on 8-1 regular-season dual-meet records, had disappointing days. The Saints shot a 316 to finish fourth in the tournament and third overall.
"I'm pretty upset because … we were winning during the regular season and we played well all year and then we take fourth in this tournament," said St. Charles East's Chris Niemiec. "Everything seems based on the tournament. It's disappointing."
Niemiec shot a 77 to lead the Saints, followed by Brad Weiss' 78, Tyler Deetjen's 80 and Jon Woods' 81.
"I hung in there on the front nine. I didn't really hit the ball that great," Niemiec said. "I shot 38. I knew I was going to make some birdies. I birdied 10 and I birdied 13, got up to 2-under on that side and then the pins got a little tougher and I made a couple of 3-putts in finishing, so I was 5 over my last six holes."
Greg Wiitanen led St. Charles North with a 77. Matt Schroeder followed with a 78, Chris Thomas came in at 79 and T.J. Metts at 80.
St. Charles North took third in the tourney with a 314, fourth overall.
"A real competitive tournament," St. Charles North coach Rob Prentiss said. "It was interesting going through the regular season how many dual meets were determined by just one shot.
"We've had contributions from a lot of different kids over the course of the season. Good solid rounds, nothing really low, but I'm pretty pleased. A good team effort."
Waubonsie Valley came in at a shocking 328, seventh for the tournament and falling all the way to fifth overall.
"Golf can be cruel sometimes," Prentiss said.
That meant Neuqua Valley catapulted into the season's top spot, winning the Wildcats' first overall conference championship.
Lake Park placed eighth with a 340, led by Ryan Smith's 83, and also took eighth overall.
Bartlett's Nick Quagliano won a two-hole playoff over Larkin's Michael Sainz to win the individual championship after each carded a 75 in regulation play.
"Michael was pretty much in command of both of them," Quagliano said of the playoff holes, which he pared, "but he unfortunately 3-putted the second hole and I 2-putted it and won it there."
Still, Quagliano felt disappointment over what could have been.
"It would have been nice to win (the tournament) three years straight, and I could have done that right there on the 18th hole. I missed about a 3-footer," Quagliano said. "It really was heart-wrenching right there."
It also was a heart-wrenching day for Waubonsie Valley, which suffered from a case of bad timing.
"We played poorly," Warriors coach David Owles said. "We practiced out here a couple of times. That's the worst score we put up all year. Not a good time to do it.
"Unfortunately, we've been kind of riding the edge all year of really close matches and coming out on the good side of them … and I guess today it caught up to us. We kind of across the board had a bad day."