Ellett sisters lead Hampshire to BNC title
Hampshire made it a clean sweep at the Big Northern Conference girls golf tournament Wednesday at Timber Pointe in Belvidere.
The Whip-Purs easily captured the team title while Connie Ellett was the individual medalist with a 79.
Hampshire's 375 team score was nearly 50 strokes better than runner-up Marengo, which shot 421. Rockford Lutheran finished third at 424. Burlington Central finished sixth with a 440 total.
Taylor Ellett finished third overall with an 83, just behind Lutheran's Lizzy Blomgren, who shot 82. Jessie Van Dorin with a 104 and Tina Tuminaro with a 109 rounded out Hampshire's scoring.
Jordan Maisto and Taylor Colby led Burlington with 102s.
Connie Ellett started slowly, but got her round going on No. 15.
"I had a nice birdie on 15 after not hitting a very good drive, so that's good," she said.
She played steadily thereafter to fend off Blomgren and her sister.
"It was a true team effort," said Hampshire coach Sue Ellett. "When you send a one-two punch out like Taylor and Connie that can bring it in right around 160, is definitely impressive, but you've got to have that 3 and 4 player to do anything as a team.
"We went undefeated this year, and then to win in convincing fashion at the conference (meet) is something we're very, very proud of. And it wasn't two players or three players, it was definitely four."
Hampshire's fifth-place finisher, Karla Vietinghoff, shot 126, which would have counted for most of the teams. Ellett noted her contributions during the regular season when Tuminaro was injured.
Burlington Central's day got off to a bad start when Katie Cappas sprained her ankle on the way to the first tee. After being evaluated by coach Deb Twenhafel, she ended up going to the hospital.
"Being a paramedic helps me a little bit," Twenhafel said. "So we looked at it and figured out that it was probably very badly sprained."
The Rocket golfers struggled on the course as well. Alex Burnside (113) and Lauren Perucco (123) were the Rockets' other scorers.
"Going in we knew Hampshire was probably going to take it," said Twenhafel. "They're tough. When you throw some 70s and 80s out there, that's a darn good score."