Barrington leaves rest of MSL seeing red

The Mid-Suburban League boys' golf championship played Tuesday at Palatine Hills Golf Course was dominated by Barrington red.

Red as in the color of marker used to denote 9-hole scores below 40 and a total score below 80 on the overall leader board.

And red as in the color of the Broncos' polo shirts - which were very present in the post-tournament photo taken of the all-conference players.

Barrington shot a 302 as a team to win the tournament by 11 strokes over Prospect. The Broncos had the individual champion in Marc Ackermann, who shot a 73, and the runner-up in Nick Schiavi, who carded a 74.

Only the top four scores count toward the team score, with six golfers competing for each team. Taylor Ganzer (77) and Greg Conrad (78) were the other two scores to count toward Barrington's team total, but John Talbot (81) and Mike Stathakis (82) placed in the top 20 at the meet to also earn all-MSL honors.

"It was tough competition today, and to win by the margin we did speaks volumes for the guys," Barrington coach Mike Kallenbach said. "They really came ready to play."

The Broncos have missed out on the conference championship the last two seasons with close defeats including by 1 shot to Fremd two years ago.

"It's great to finally win the whole conference," Schiavi said. "The whole team played awesome. It's a good confidence booster going into the state tournament."

Ackermann, a senior, had also been just off the mark for the individual championship, coming in second place by 1 shot each of the last two seasons.

"It was his time," Kallenbach said. "I'm really happy he won the conference."

Barrington went 11-0 during the MSL's regular season, making Tuesday's result a clean sweep for the Broncos.

"We've got a really solid team this year," Ackermann said. "We had a couple close matches during the year, and we really played well here. It was a fun tournament."

Ackermann said he and Schiavi easily could have tied for the individual championship had Ackermann not sunk a 20-foot putt from in the fringe of the green on the 18th hole.

"Those guys for the last two years I've said they've been 1 and 1A," Kallenbach said. "They're both great players."

You never quite know what the weather is going to do in late September in suburban Chicago, but Tuesday was a picturesque day, and provided great golfing conditions.

"It was a great day," Ackermann said. "The greens were pretty fast, and the course was in really good shape. There was just a little bit of wind but not too much."

Fremd finished third in the tourney, but second overall in the conference standings. Prospect was third in the conference with Hersey fourth and Palatine fifth.

Schaumburg was the surprise of the meet, though. The Saxons finished 11th in the regular-season standings, winning just one of their 11 matches, but finished fifth in the tournament with a 328.

Individually, Ryan Kowalski of Prospect finished third with a 75. There was a four-way tie for fourth between Barrington's Taylor Glanzer, Prospect's Jimi Poulous, Hersey's Ryan Starkman, and Buffalo Grove's Doug Ghim, who all shot 77.