CL South’s Robles, Barrington match the conditions
Spectacular.
The word was used by more than one coach to describe the picture-perfect weather at Tuesday’s Barrington boys golf regional, but the adjective was also a accurate description of the performance of Crystal Lake South senior Nick Robles.
As a matter of fact, Broncos athletic director Mike Obsuszt called the 3-under par round “phenomenal” as Robles fired a 68 at Makray Memorial Golf Club to take medalist honors and lead his team to an advacement to next Monday’s sectional tourney at Hilldale.
Crystal Lake South’s score of 324 was good for second place in the team race that was won by the host Broncos with an oustanding total of 316. Fremd was the third sectional qualifier with a 327, finishing 2 strokes ahead of Jacobs and Cary-Grove.
Robles, who just missed winning a state championship last year by falling short in a playoff to Thomas O’Bryan of Waubonsie Valley, showed typical modesty by describing his medal winning round as “pretty good.”
“I wanted to come out here today and get my confidence up, and get on a roll heading into sectionals and state,” said Robles. “But my main focus was to help us move on as a team, and we did that.”
“We’ve basically got a brand new team this year — I’m the only returning player from last season — so to repeat what we did last year is pretty impressive.”
Barrington received a great performance from senior Mike Stathakis, who won the second place individual medal by carding a 72 — 6 strokes better than his nearest competition.
The senior gave some of the credit to the unusual, 80-degree, calm mid-October day.
“It wasn’t windy at all like it usually is here,” said Stathakis, “so I was able to fire right at the pins, which for the most part were in the middle of the greens.”
“The climate was with us today,” said Broncos junior Mike Ross, who drained a 35-foot birdie putt on the par-5 18th hole to a chorus of cheers from the home crowd. “But even though the weather was good, the course was playing as tricky as ever, especially if you weren’t on top of your game.”
Sean Kozak of Jacobs earned the third-place medal and a qualification for sectionals by shooting 78, and Greg Conrad of Barrington (79) and Zach Isoda of Fremd (79) rounded out the medal-winning performances.
Nick Schippel (81) and J.P. Talbot (84) scored for Barrington, while Steven Rawls (81), Steven Dodgen (82) and Tom Daddono (85) made clutch contributions to the Fremd advacement.
Tuesday was also an extraordinary day for the Kinney family of Cary-Grove, as brothers Justin (a senior) and Jarrett (a junior) punched their ticket to sectionals by carding an 80 and 82, respectively.
And according to Justin Kinney, who said he was sriking the ball “extremely well” at Makray, there is no sibling rivalry when it comes to golf.
“He helps me out, and I help him out as well,” said Justin.
Austin Wiggerman (81) and Geoff Pietsch (85) were consistent for Crystal Lake South, while Max Rand of Crystal Lake Central shot 80 to qualify for the Fremd-hosted sectional at Hilldale.
Individual qualifiers included Chris Boyle of Jacobs (81), JB Garoufalis of Crystal Lake Central (82), Joe Aschacher from Dundee-Crown (83) and Kyle Lehnertz (83) of Cary-Grove.
Palatine’s Tom Broders and Will Baumgartner also advanced as individuals. Broders, a freshman, and Baumgartner, a junior, had to work overtime as the teammates survived a four-man playoff to earn the last two spots.
“This was the first time I’ve been in a playoff, so I was really nervous,” said Baumgartner. “Now my goal is to play as well as I can at sectionals.”