Boys golf: Math adds up for Barrington, not for Stevenson

Figuring out Kishwaukee Country Club's short-but-tight track was only half the challenge for Barrington's boys golf team.

Once all six Broncos had finished their rounds in Monday's Class 3A DeKalb sectional, they started calculating their own scores and as well as those of other golfers whose teams were also in contention for the three state-qualifying berths.

"We had our I-phone calculators," Barrington junior Matt Lee said.

"The brain," Broncos senior Dominic Scaletta added. "Which you got to double-, triple- quadruple-check."

In the end, the math added up favorably for Barrington, which shot a 310 in finishing second to DeKalb (305). Led by Jack Marshall's 75 and Pierce Grieve's 76, Lake Forest (311) secured the final state-qualifying, which looked initially like it would go to Stevenson (312, fourth place). Libertyville and Hersey (316 each) also had shots.

At first, Stevenson's score was recorded on the leaderboard as a 310, but when Patriots coach John Rueth did his own math, he discovered one of his players signed for a lower score. The player was disqualified, and Stevenson's next best score was 2 shots worse, denying the defending state runner-up a return trip to Bloomington for this weekend's state tournament at The Den at Fox Creek.

That's a lot of brain work for one day.

"We thought we were out because we figured that a couple of other teams would beat us," Scaletta said. "Not because we're bad, but because we had a really bad day today."

A morning frost pushed back tee times by more than an hour, and by the time darkness set in, there was still golf to be played. DeKalb's Jack Paeglow won medalist honors over McHenry's Truman Keppy in a playoff after the two players shot matching 2-over 72s. At 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, six players - Lake Forest's Patrick Moorhead, Libertyville's Aleks Slesers, Deerfield's Adam Bornstein, Mundelein's Colin Wade and Tanner Anderson, and Lake Zurich's Noah Van Herik - will tee it up in a playoff for the final state-qualifying berth. Each player shot a 78.

Barrington also counted Dylan Dunne's 79 and Sean Markham's 80. Ian Bouchard and Brock Dickson each carded an 82.

"Dom (Scaletta) and I played here twice, and there were some holes that we were still trying to figure out," Lee said. "A lot of it is just club choice. Most of it is mental, especially today with it being a little colder and there being more pressure."

"It really wasn't that easy," Scaletta said. "You look at the scorecard and you look at 6,300 yards, and you're thinking, 'It's going to be an easy 65-66.' But then you come out here and you don't hit a lot of drivers. It's very tight, and the greens were very firm. They're small, and they're fast. I guess our mantra was, 'You don't have to shoot that low. You just want to avoid the big numbers.' "

Scaletta, Lee, Markham and Bouchard were all on the Broncos team that tied for seventh at state last year.

"It was a neat reaction when the realized they had qualified," Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. "It was like a group hug."

Stevenson, which advanced Conan Pan (75) and Jake Surane (77), had opened the season by shooting a 338 at Rolling Green Country Club. Pan, who teed it up at state last year as a sophomore, started his round by chipping in for birdie on No. 1, a short par 4.

"I'm proud of our guys because at the beginning of the season we weren't looking too great," Pan said. "We kept on improving. It's good to see the young guys playing a lot better."

Libertyville junior Danny Keating earned his first state berth after firing a 77, including a 1-over 36 on his final nine holes (Kishwaukee's front nine). Included was a chip-in for birdie from a downhill lie on No. 7.

"It's short, it's tight, and it's pretty tough, but it's a nice course," Keating said. "I was aiming for 4 over (74). I thought that would be really good, but I can't be mad with a 77, considering the first nine I played."

Others qualifying for state included Fremd's Ryan Higgins (74), Buffalo Grove's Dori Lee (75) and Hersey's Henry Quinn (75).