'Storybook finish' for Neuqua Valley
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.
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," St. Charles North coach Rob Prentiss said.
That meant Neuqua Valley catapulted into the season's top spot, winning the Wildcats' first overall conference championship.
St. Charles North took third in the tourney with a 314, fourth overall. 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 parred, "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."
Neuqua Valley had a very good day, in part because the Wildcats thought they had nothing to play for.
"First of all, I think we played loose," Neuqua Valley coach Spike Grosshuesch said.
The Wildcats didn't take any pre-tournament practice rounds at St. Andrews because, Grosshuesch said, "I really felt a lot of things would have to fall into place for us to win the conference."
Instead, they practiced at Mill Creek in Geneva to prepare for Tuesday's stacked Class 3A regional.
"I just told our guys, let's just go out there and let's have fun today and just play like you can play," Grosshuesch said. "I think the key for us was that we didn't have an outstanding score, but we had a lot of good scores, and the fifth card was what helped us win it. That was the big thing, that we were pretty balanced."
The Wildcats got a 76 from Steve Marbach, 78s from Tim Brackett and Sean Kelley and a 79 from Matt Pell. Joe Jensen's 79 counted as the tiebreaker against Bartlett's Ryan Oberg, who shot an 82.
So if the Wildcats won the title despite not practicing at the host course, will they try that unusual tactic again for the regional?
"No, we will definitely be playing Mill Creek," Grosshuesch said. "We're going to have to play even better (at the regional) than we played today to move on."
But that's next week. First the Wildcats can enjoy their league title a little more.
"A storybook finish for us, Grosshuesch said. "Let's hope it continues."