A fifth straight MSL title for Prospect
Prospect junior Ally Scaccia said she was hitting the ball better off the tee Monday than she had been lately.
With Scaccia’s round of 79 highlighting the Knights’ score card, Prospect’s girls golf team and Mid-Suburban League championships continued to fit to a tee.
Junior Kiley Walsh (81), junior Noreen Caporusso (82) and sophomore Isabella Flack (82) produced a score of 324 to give the Knights a fifth straight conference crown under coach Jim Hamann.
Prospect topped runner-up Fremd (331) by 7 strokes while host Buffalo Grove (343), Barrington (350) and Hersey (362) rounded out the top five.
For the second straight year, a Barrington golfer notched medalist honors as junior Heather Ciskowski fired a 2-under par 73 over the Buffalo Grove Golf Course.
BG senior Grace Kil (75) was second followed by Fremd junior Dorothy Feng (78), Scaccia (79) and Walsh (81).
Caporusso, Flack, Fremd junior Jennifer Kim and Fremd senior Angie Kim tied for sixth with 82s.
The day started chilly as frost created a one-hour delay to the start of the meet.
“That kind of threw us off,” said Walsh, who birdied three holes. “We had all had a lot of layers on and were ready for the cold. Then all of sudden about midway through, it warmed up.”
“It was a real chilly morning so the ball didn’t go that far,” said Ciskowski, the new MSL champ who tied for fourth a year ago at Bonnie-Dundee in Carpentersville when the Fillies Julia Calbi earned medalist honors. “I played this course last year in the sectional so I knew it pretty well.”
The former tennis player (a state doubles qualifier as a freshman), missed her personal best score of 72 by 1 stroke.
Chipping and putting helped key Ciskowski’s round. She said she missed only “two or three” greens.
Kil, who holds almost every BG school record, connected for 5 birdies. “I wish I would have played better but I really can’t complain (about a 75),” she said. “I just couldn’t hit my irons.”
Fremd’s Feng hit for a personal-best 78.
“It was a great round by Dorothy,” said Fremd coach Christine Vlaming, who guided the Vikings to their first MSL West championship.
After the Kims’ scores of 82, freshman Jae Hee Hur’s 89 counted for the Vikes’ fourth score.
“The girls stepped up, and anyone who didn’t have a good hole just moved on and kept fighting. They all have been working hard all off-season and it was nice to see it pay off.
“It’s an amazing conference and we are fortunate to be part of it. There are great golfers from all the schools and it’s an honor to represent the West.”
The Vikes’ only loss in conference dual play was by 2 strokes at Prospect seven days ago.
Just like she did at that meet, Flack came up with an important score to help the Knights on Monday.
“Isabella came up big,” Hamann said. “She has been working real hard on fixing things the last few weeks. She didn’t make many mistakes (Monday). She did a better job recovering from bad shots.”
The Knights will take their shots Saturday at the Champaign Centennial Invite and then prepare for the regional at Bonnie Brook a week from Wednesday.
“It’s been a whole program effort,” Hamann said. “And we are very honored to be MSL champs. We’ve accomplished our first goal. Now we will move on to goal No. 2.
“The girls have a lot to celebrate. They did a great job against some of the best MSL competition I’ve seen since I’ve been here (seven seasons). The scores have continued to drop year after year.”
Completing the top 20 scores on Monday were Buffalo Grove’s Courtney Meyer (84, tie 10th), Schaumburg’s Emily Santucci (84, tie 10th), Hersey’s Lexi Heidkamp (85, 12th), Elk Grove’s Katie DeMeulenaere (86, 13th), Prospect’s Emma Menich (87, tie 14th), Buffalo Grove’s Amber Guiao (87, tie 14th), Barrington’s Bailee McDonald (87, tie 14th), Prospect’s Noelle Johnston (88, tie 17th), Hersey’s Flo Eitelbach (88, tie 17th), Fremd’s Jae Hee Hurr (89, 18th), Hersey’s Lindsay Perkins (90, tie 19th), Conant’s Jackie Halden (91, tie 20th), Conant’s Annie Witt (91, tie 20th) and Barrington’s Kelly Umphred (91, tie 20th).