Barsamian, Fillies on fire at golf regional

By her own account, Barrington senior McCall Barsamian is not normally a glass-is-half-full type of person.

After a 42 on her opening nine Wednesday in an IHSA regional at Lake Bluff Golf Club, she resolved to have a better approach on the back nine.

"I tried to be as positive as I could," she said. "I thought about hitting every shot straight and making it every time I putted."

The power of positive thinking proved to be a wonderful thing.

Barsamian shot a 1-under-par 35 on the back nine for an 18-hole score of 77, good for medalist honors by 1 stroke over Lake Forest's Hailey Koschmann.

Barrington (329) easily won the team title. The Fillies also counted matching 84s from Brittany Keiter, Amanda Schmitz and Marina Karamanis. In addition to Barrington, Stevenson (346) and Carmel (369) also advanced to next week's sectional tournament. Lake Forest missed qualifying by 2 strokes.

Barsamian finished her round with birdies at Nos. 15 and 17. This was the first time she shot under par for nine holes in a high school competition. And now Barrington is one good performance at sectionals away from making it to the state tournament for the fourth consecutive year.

Stevenson hopes it will advance to state for the second straight year, and the Patriots were confident of their chances at regionals.

"We have a solid team and we expect to do well," said junior Angelina Kim, who led Stevenson with an 83.

Stevenson received a key 86 from senior Whitney Paul. Coach Andrew Conneen said Paul has been a "poster child" for improvement.

"She took 12 shots off her average," Conneen said. "She also bailed us out in a dual match right here against Lake Forest."