Stringfellow, Lions shine against best at St. Viator Tournament
Danny Stringfellow of St. Viator and Wheaton Academy's David Flynn picked a great time to shine at Saturday's St. Viator Tournament of Champions.
Playing at Old Orchard Country Club amongst some of the best prep golfers and teams in the state, Stringfellow's 67 led the Lions to the team title with a record breaking score of 291.
Flynn took individual medalist honors as last year's Class 2A champion shot 65.
"By no means did I have a number in mind when I stepped to the first tee," said Flynn. "But I started to get an idea I could shoot a low number after the first couple of holes.
"I had a good rythym going, and I was confident in reading these greens."
Glenbard West sophomore Kyle Kochevar, who said he felt that it "could be a good day" after recording birdies of two of his first three holes, took home the fourth-place medal with a 68 while Wes Apple of St. Charles East was sixth individually with a 71.
"There were some crazy low scores out here today," said Fremd coach Josh Teschner. "This might have been a stronger field than the state tournament. You had at least five of the state's top teams here."
Joe Carlson (73), Brad Klune (75), Kenny Wienckowski (76) and Luke DeTrempe (76) all contributed to Viator's record-setting score as the two-time defending 3A state champs broke the previous tournament mark by 1 stroke.
And Stringfellow, who won the second-place medal, had thoughts of possibly breaking the tournament individual mark of 64 after shooting 32 on the front nine.
"I wished I could have shot better on the back nine," said the senior, "after doing so well on the front nine. But you can't be disappointed with a 67. I'm very happy, especially considering all the great players that were here today."
Lake Forest and New Trier each finished with 292 to finish just 1 shot back in the team race, while Glenbard West and St. Charles East, helped by Jordan Wetsch's 72, scored 299.
Hinsdale Central shot 301 behind Theo Lederhausen (72) while Wheaton Academy finished at 303.
Chris Ramirez carded 73 for Fremd while Sean Kelly led Hersey with an 83.
"We used to call our tourney the St. Viator Invitational," said Viator coach Jack Halpin, "but we changed the name this year to tournament of champions because of all of the great teams here. Amongst these 13 teams, you have 29 state championships.
"There were a lot of college coaches here today looking at the boys, and every input I got was that this field was equivalent to a state tournament field."