Girls golf: Barrington wins 7th straight MSL title

This was truly a case of seventh heaven for the Barrington's girls golf program on Thursday at the Highland Woods Golf Course in Hoffman Estates.

The Fillies (304) won their seventh straight Mid-Suburban League championship, and senior Sophia Sulkar gave the Fillies their seventh straight individual championship.

In fact, it was Sulkar's second straight title and guess who began the string of seven straight individual crowns back in 2015?

It was Sophia's sister Reena, who was followed by Wake Forest's Caroline Smith (three in a row), current senior and Michigan recruit Mara Janess and the two most recent by Sophia.

Sophia's 1-over-par score of 73 included three birdies, including two on her sizzling 34 on the back nine.

"I made a 15-footer on hole No. 17 for birdie which gave me confidence for No. 18," said the Illinois recruit who reached 15 greens in regulation. "I feel like my ball striking was really, really good. I had one bad hole on nine (double bogey). Other than that, everything went pretty well."

For runner-up Fremd (343) and third-place finisher Schaumburg (353), their respective second and third-place finishes were their best in more than 10 years.

Prospect's 354, good for fourth place, gave the Knights a third straight MSL East title under coach Brad Rathe.

Janess, a senior, tied with teammate Leah Gaidos and Fremd's Sarah Sim (all had 76s) for second place. They were followed by Barrington's Simran Singh (79), Hersey's Sydney Ohr (80), Prospect's Abby Knott (80), Barrington's Sydney Terada (81), Barrington's Bridget Butler (82), Buffalo Grove's Eva Ruterschmidt (82), Conant's Sadie Zorrilla (83), Fremd's Keira Brazeau (84), Schaumburg's Emily Akers (84), Schaumburg's Jess Wise (85), Prospect's Kate Riesing (88), Hersey's Ava Johnson (89), Conant's Ariel Morrison (90), Fremd's Gloria Lee (90), Palatine's Mia Popovic (90), Rolling Meadows' Natalie Von Oesen (91), Rolling Meadows' Lauren Schiele (91) and Schaumburg's Araha Uday (91) who all earned all-conference status.

"Sophia is one of the hardest working players I've ever had," said Fillies third-year coach Tim Martin. "I'm so glad she is getting the recognition she deserves as one of the best players in the state. It's great that our two seniors, Jana and Sophia, finished with four conference championships and each have won individual titles.

"It's so impressive for a sophomore (Gaidos) to finish second. She is one of the most intelligent players I have coached. Simran (a junior) is just striking the ball so well. She is putting all the pieces together to have a great finish to her career."

Fremd coach Jeremy Malinowski hopes his team's finish on Thursday leads to a first regional title since 2011.

"Like what we've been saying all season, 'Why not us?' This was a perfect example of what we can do," Malinowski said. "I'm so proud of these girls. After the match, they're already talking about going to the putting green, or going to the range."

Sim, a junior, has been steady as they come. On Thursday she shot a 38-38. Brazeau (freshman), Lee (freshman) and junior Maddie Park (93) rounded out Fremd's scores.

"Sarah doesn't have any glaring faults," Malinowski said. "She gets off the tee, she can get up and down from anywhere and her putting has been hot. When she does those things, we can do well because it takes the pressure off everyone else. We have the two freshmen who are all-conference and we have no seniors."

Malinowski says a winning culture is developing. The Vikings won 10 straight league matches after falling to Barrington in their opener.

"Our 3-4-5 and 6 players have been scoring for us," Malinowski added. "Grace (Arrango) has been on fire for us. As long we believe in ourselves, we have a chance to keep this going."

Schaumburg kept its productive season going with its best finish in coach Michelle Hinojosa's 12 seasons.

In addition to Akers and Uday, the Saxons used the scores of senior Jess Wise (85) and junior Margad Baasansuren (93).

"This is super exciting," Hinojosa said. "We used the scores of three seniors and another (Kim Kolodziej) shot under 100 for the first time this season. I'm so proud of all our girls, including our freshman Bri (Bondarowicz)."

Leading East champion Prospect were Knott, Riesing, Emily Torok (92) and Maia Johnson (94).

"Winning the division is always your goal when you start the season," said Rathe, who is less than a month away from starting his first season as the Knights boys basketball coach. "Those are the teams you know best. Winning the East is something we are proud of. And we had a lot of tough matches to get to that point.

"Abby (Knott) has been playing well. She has the second best scoring average since I've been coaching these girls, second only to Kelly Kavanagh (now playing at Drake). An 80 out here today with how long the course was playing and the wind is a good number."