Lillie leads St. Charles North to runner-up sectioanl finish
It was a scramble from start to the finish at the Conant girls sectional golf meet at Fox Run in Elk Grove.
Maine South won the team title with a 328, while St. Charles North was second with a 331.
The scramble began at third place, where both Wheaton Warrenville South and Oak Park tied with a 337. Wheaton Warrenville South was awarded the final team spot at this weekend's Class AA state finals based on the fifth score, as Emma Field's score was lower than the 101 from Oak Park's Sophie Mouros.
And because Wheaton Warrenville South became the third automatic qualifier, taking all of its golfers to the state meet, that opened up one more position in the at-large individual competition.
Tying for the 10th and final individual qualifying berth were Glenbard West's Samantha Moody, Elk Grove's Erin Walz, Lake Park's Nicole Hansen and Burlington Central's Josie Kurosky. Each shot an 84.
Normally there would have been a sudden death playoff between the four to determine the final at large qualifier. But the weather, which forced other changes in the format earlier in the day, didn't cooperate. Rain and lightning along with soaked grounds, forced the playoff to be moved to 10:30 a.m. Tuesday .
“I am going to drove by the course early Tuesday to see how the course is,” Conant athletic director John Kane said. “We hope to have the playoff completed.”
Because of the possibility of heavy rain, the tournament was switched from its normal start of foursomes teeing off from the 1st and 10th holes, to a shotgun start. The 100 players squeezed onto the the 18 holes and completed the tournament in just over 5 hours.
The timing could have not been more perfect. Despite the light rain that the players had to deal with for the final 9 holes, they at least were able to finish before the deluge hit.
The conditions did not seem to bother the North Stars' Kate Lillie, who shot a 1-under 69 to become medalist. Lillie, who is a sophomore and placed 20th in the state last year, shot 33 on the front 9 holes and 36 on the back 9.
Lillie was solid all day. She had three birdies and two bogies while three-putting just one green.
“It was a steady round,” Lillie said. “The weather really didn't affect me. I was able to kind of power through it.”
Lillie's teammate, Gianna Furrie, who is also a sophomore, was second medalist with a 74.
“It was really exciting,” Furrie said. “And I am really glad the whole team is going with us.”
St. Charles North coach Irish Whalen, who also got strong performances from Gabi Spinazze (92) and Kayla Janchik (96), said the different format helped her team.
“It was good to have format like this,” Whalen said. “I am not sure we would have got the whole meet in if we didn't do it this way.
“The first 7 holes were pretty comfortable. After that it started to get a little darker and a little damper. But our kids adjusted as the day went on.”
Wheaton Warrenville South coach Art Tang liked the way his team pulled together to earn a trip downstate.
“Going in, I thought that a 337 would have been easily good enough,” Tang said. “It was good that we could see all the other teams with us because we played with the top four teams. It was a grind, but everybody contributed.”
Wheaton Warrenville South was led by Kelly Anderson, who shot a 75 to post the third-best individual score of the meet. Sarah Hauenenstein had an 81, while Priya Desal shot an 87 and Julia Hauenstein a 94.
St. Charles East was fifth with a score of 350. The Saints' Nicole Jordan qualified as an individual with a score of 81.
Conant finished sixth with a 357, but the Cougars were buoyed by the performance of Megan Nagorzanski, who shot an 80, and Carly Bryeans, who shot an 82. Both were at large-qualifiers.
“I am thrilled for both of them,” Conant coach Megan Hebert said. “These two girls deserve it more than any girl I have coached. They have worked hard all season and they have committed to golf.”
Nagorzanski, who is a junior, said she was excited to be making the trip to Decatur.
“That was the goal,” Nagorzanski said. “I had a solid round. I had a couple of holes that I struggled with, but I was able to pick it back up and stayed pretty consistent.”
Glenbard West was eighth with a 372, Elk Grove ninth with a 377. Batavia, which was led by Rebecca Haseman's 91, finished 10th with a 380 while Glenbard East, led by Grace Ludwig's 88, was 12th with a 388.
St. Charles East's Rose Bundy and Willowbrook's Amanda DiNella just missed the playoff by shooting 85. Geneva's Nicole Hassels, and York's Daniella Sika each shot an 86 while Leyden's Jennifer Feliciano and Wheaton North's Mikayla Harrington each shot an 88.