Focused WW South lets coach relax
Wheaton Warrenville South's girls let golf coach Art Tang relax Wednesday.
While other teams had their problems with Pheasant Run Golf Course during the Class AA Wheaton Academy regional, the Tigers made the course look easy. They shot a 297 to win the team championship by 43 strokes.
"Probably somewhere around 3-teens is what I was hoping for," said Tang, saying he thought the 297 tied a school record. "Of course I'm not really disappointed."
The Tigers' Annalee Dannegger won the individual championship, shooting a 70.
"Today I was really good mentally," Dannegger said. "I stuck to the process, didn't get too high or too low. On the front nine I made one birdie and one bogey, so I just was consistent. I hit a lot of greens. And then on the back nine I hit a double (bogey) and came back with two birdies right after. Then I hit a bogey and I came back with two birdies right after that. I was really good at bouncing back after I had a bad hole."
Dannegger said a bad match Monday served as motivation for the Tigers.
"We had a rough match against St. Charles East, so I just wanted to come back from that, get a good score," she said.
Hadley Moritz shot a 72, Priya Desai a 73 and Emma Field an 82 to round out the Tigers' top-four counting scores.
"We threw out an 83 (Julia Hauenstein), and that was her personal best also," Tang said.
The great day left Tang worrying about next week, which starts with the Oak Park sectional Monday at Cog Hill.
"The only problem with this is where do you go from here," Tang said. "It's hard to go any lower. So there's probably going to be a little bit of a letdown. I just hope it's not too much."
It is possible, though, that WW South could improve, considering the Tigers will get No. 1 player Sarah Hauenstein back from injury in time for the Oak Park sectional at Cog Hill No. 1.
"I think the sky's the limit for our team," Dannegger said. "We have a lot of girls who can score. We're really deep. I'm really excited."
Host Wheaton Academy placed second with a 340.
"I think they had a solid day, but they were a little bit nervous about moving up to AA today," Warriors coach Haley Martin said. "But having home-course advantage did us well. We had some great rounds."
Hailey Farmer led the Warriors with an 81, and Lauren Isenhart added an 87.
Glenbard East qualified for the sectional for a second consecutive season, shooting a 351 to take the third and final team qualification spot from Glenbard West (355) and York (357).
"We thought that Wheaton South and Wheaton Academy were the best clubs," Rams coach Scott Miller said. "Wheaton Academy played in our invite two weeks ago. I felt like they were 10-15 strokes better than we were, so I didn't feel we could catch them, which played out. But I felt like us, Glenbard West and York were right there, so it came down to who played better today. We were fortunate we had three of our girls have career bests."
Gillian Ostrowski led the Rams with an 80.
"They kind of know what it's all about a little bit, but still, kind of nerve-wracking out there, and I'm just really proud of them for doing this for a second year in a row," Miller said.
Samantha Moody had a good day for the Hilltoppers. She carded a 75.
Follow Orrin on Twitter @Orrin_Schwarz