Girls golf: Fillies stay on course in Schoeck's final season
The Mid-Suburban League farewell tour for retiring IHSA hall of fame Barrington girls coach Jodi Schoeck stayed on a perfect course on Thursday at the Makray Memorial Golf Course in Barrington.
Schoeck's two-time defending champions met up with perennial East powerhouse Prospect and outscored the Knights 145 to 175 while Palatine, the third team in the tri meet, had only three scores after ace golfer Victoria Simmons had to withdraw because of a shoulder injury.
The Fillies ran their record to 4-0 while Prospect now stands at 5-1.
"It's been a real honor and lots of fun coaching against Jodi," said Knights coach Jim Hamann, who will be inducted into the IHSA Hall of Fame in May of 2019. "This was our last dual meet against her today and I wish her all the best. She's a great coach, a great person and she has a great bunch of girls."
Those girls were led by medalist Nicole Ciskowski, a senior and Wisconsin recruit who shot a 38 on the par-35 front nine.
"That 38 was really swell," Schoeck said. "The greens were lightning fast and there no straight putts. Every one was a slider so the girls really had to work hard for those."
"It was tough, the wind blew on a lot of the holes so you had to factor that in," Ciskowski said. "The greens were playing really fast and some of pin locations were tough so you had some tough putts.
"I just tried to power through and be confident, telling myself I know how to putt and I know how to play golf. And I think that helped me out."
Also helping the Fillies' scorecard were Olivia Lee (39), Sophia Sulkar (39) and Caroline Smith (40).
"It was a big match for coach," said Smith a two-time MSL champion. "She was a little nervous, knowing Prospect has been playing well. But as a team, we were all confident in our scores and we've been playing well lately.
"I didn't think we were nervous at all and we all performed pretty well. The wind was a little rough and the greens were really fast. The pin placements made for a lot of downhill sliders that were difficult to make. But it's OK. We'll go out and do better in our next match."
Prospect' scorecard was led by Emily Fleming (42), Kelly Kavanagh (44), Amanda Stein (44) and Emma Preising (45).
"It wasn't what we were expecting but we prepared hard," said Knights coach Jim Hamann. "We just didn't have it today. We'll try to improve on it tomorrow in practice and with another match Saturday (vs Lyons at Cog Hill).
"We'll get to see Barrington at the conference tournament and hopefully we'll be more competitive them.
"We were ready for the course. We had a had a good practice round. We just did not expect what we did today. We've been shooting some real nice scores, and this was out highest of the season. It just came at a bad time."
The Fillies are hoping to have a good time all season for Schoeck's final chapter of 31 years.
They've already recorded three eagles this season. Ciskowski and Smith each had one at Chevy Chase Golf Links in Wheeling while Lee recorded one at Midlothian Golf Course in a tourney hosted by Providence Catholic.
"It's always a pleasure playing against Jim's (Hamann) teams because they are always ready for the action and it's nice for the girls to have to prepare for such stiff competition," Schoeck said. "We're lucky to come out with the win today.
"I'm proud of the girls for hanging in there and not letting the little things get them down and knowing they have things to work on for the future."
Recording the three scores for Palatine (1-5) were Olivia Radtke (52), Amanda Mirczuk (57) and Allison Mirczuk (63).