Girls golf: Singh leads Barrington to 8th straight MSL crown
Eight was great in the eyes of Barrington's girls golf coach Tim Martin, whose Fillies won their eighth straight Mid-Suburban League crown on Thursday afternoon at Wheeling's Chevy Chase Country Club.
For Martin, it was his fourth straight title since taking over for hall of fame coach Jodi Schoeck.
With senior Simran Singh notching individual honors with a 1-over par 73, the Fillies cruised to the title with a team score of 304, easily outdistancing runner-up Fremd (337) and third-place finisher Prospect (344), which earned its fourth straight MSL East title while getting a big spark from senior Taylor Knott's 75, which included an eye-popping 6 birdies.
"It's really a great honor for us to win the conference this year with so many great teams and great players," Martin said. "Look at Fremd and Sarah Sim (75), who's outstanding. Jeremy (Malinowski, the Vikings' coach) has done a great job with that team. They're so good and I congratulate them on second place. Prospect is so good. Courtney Beerheide (sixth place with a 79) of Buffalo Grove is really a good young freshman. There is so much talent in the MSL. For us to be able to win the team and individual championship, it just means a lot for us and we feel very fortunate."
The Fillies took four of the top five spots with junior Bridget Butler (75 which tied for second with Knott and Sim), junior Leah Gaidos (76) taking fifth and senior Kaitlyn Thomas placing seventh (80).
"The girls played great," Martin said. "With a score of 304 on such a tough day, cold and windy, I'm so proud of all of them. Simran in her senior year, our team captain, to finally win the tournament was rock solid. She's been close before (fifth last year at Highland Woods 79) and she circled this date on her calendar. She really wanted to win. She's a Division I golfer going to Long Island University and they're getting a really good golfer.
"I can't tell you how well Bridget Butler (4 birdies) has been playing and she was right there. Leah is one of the best players in the state and she has been showing that. She won a tournament last weekend and a regional last year. To shoot a 76 in these conditions was also rock solid. And Kaitlkyn Thomas is maybe our most improved player. She played very well with multiple birdies and has been playing the best golf of her career when we need it. (Junior) Sydney Terada (80) has been one of our best golfers all season. She and Praise Shim (84), only a sophomore, both made all-conference, too."
Singh became the eight straight individual winner in the MSL meet for Barrington.
"It was definitely a pretty good round for me, especially with the weather being much colder than it has been," said Singh, who finished her round with her second birdie of the day. "It (winning conference) has been a goal all along but I just went in thinking to play one shot at a time. I would say my wedges were really good because I was sticking the ball pretty close to make the putts."
Knott showed off her green expertise by sinking 6 birdie putts, four on the back nine.
Her front and back of 41-34 followed a couple of 55 and 54 nine-hole rounds over the last few weeks.
"I said 'look you just had too many bad shots and inconsistency,'" said Knights coach Brad Rathe, whose team tied its season best score. "I told her there's some good stuff, too, because she can hit the ball far and she can make birdies, She thought all was lost but I said to her 'not at all.' I told her she was going through a little rough time and sure enough she put it all together today."
With birdies on her final three holes, Knott finished the best round of her high school career.
"I was having a little rough time so I'm very excited to have the best round of my career," Knott said.
Fremd earned its second straight runner-up spot in the MSL meet.
"I thought before the wind picked up an appropriate number for us to shoot was 320," Malinowski said. "I thought that would compete with Barrington if they weren't perfect. But they've been really good all season. Prospect has been trending in the right direction. We saw them in Rockford last week when they took third and we were second. We were focused on them because they are in our regional next week at Palatine Hills) and I would say on paper Fremd is the favorite, just going by the trend of scores. Prospect has been in our rear view mirror. For us to win another regional championship, we would have to go through Prospect."
Rounding out Fremd's scorecard were sophomore Keira Brazeau (84), sophomore Gloria Lee (87) and senior Shreya Mantena (91).
"Sarah Sim is our leader and has been for the last three years," Malinowski said. "For her to score really low today took some pressure off us. Keira has been playing really well and Gloria also. She had a tough day putting. If she had the short stick working she could have been in the top tier, too. But that's what is nice about our team. We are really deep with Sarah and Keira leading the way and with our three-through-six players all able to score low. It just depends on the day. I think beating Prospect again today makes our confidence high going into our regional championship."
Completing the medalist list were Hersey junior Ava Johnsen (81), Conant senior Sadie Zorrilla (83), Barrington's Shim (84), Fremd's Brazeau (84), Barrington's Terada (84), Prospect junior Emily Torok (85), Fremd's Lee (87), Rolling Meadows senior Natalie Von Oesen (97), Wheeling junior Sarah Huh (90), Schaumburg sophomore Briana Bondarowicz (90), Fremd's Mantena (91), Schaumburg senior Margad Baasansuren (91) and Prospect senior Kate Riesing (91) rounding out the top 20.