Boys golf: Fremd's Newby continues red-hot play; Prospect takes team title
Fremd junior Braeden Newby survived a couple of challenges at Wednesday's Class 3A Fremd boys golf regional at Hilldale Golf Club in Hoffman Estates.
One had to do with the par-71, 6,417-yard track.
The other had to do with his coach's celebratory wrestling move afterward.
"Yes, I did," Vikings coach Ryan Moreau said of lifting Newby via a fireman's carry after Newby fired a 1-over 72 for medalist honors in sunny, chilly conditions at the Robert Trent Jones Sr.-designed course.
Moreau, mercifully, didn't follow through on the move and pin his Vike emphatically near the 18th pin. There's some season left, after all, including Monday's Dundee-Crown sectional at Randall Oaks in West Dundee.
Newby - normally Fremd's No. 5 scorer, no kidding - is certainly peaking at the right time. He took fourth at the Mid-Suburban League tourney earlier this month and carded four birdies, including holes 15 and 16, en route to topping the runner-up round of 76 turned in by Buffalo Grove's Connor Woodin on Wednesday.
"It's a course where you have to keep it in play," Newby said. "Putting was a challenge, especially with the placement of pins today.
"I felt confident, and my mindset was where it needed to be today, for sure."
Prospect captured the team title behind a pair of 77s from Luke Kruger and Patrick Raupp. Rounds from Cole Bielecki (78) and Hugo Arzbaecher (78) also counted toward the Knights' 310 total.
Fremd (319) and Buffalo Grove (319) also advanced as teams. Fremd silvered on a fifth-score (David Ku's 84) tiebreaker.
"Winning a regional is a very difficult task, particularly against a field like this, with its great teams and great coaches," said Prospect coach Jim Hamann, whose squad features an impressive five all-MSL golfers. "It was a grind today. Our guys normally go lower than they did today, but I'm proud of how they performed."
Runner-up Fremd - seeded fourth at the regional, based on the collective results of the regular season, Moreau noted - received 82s from Nathan Delaney and Ray Den Tee and an 83 from Joey Towns.
BG's 2-3-4 behind Woodin were Cori Lee (78), Tyler Imhof (81) and Nathan Barbakoff (84).
Hersey (fourth place, 323) missed advancing as a team by 4 strokes, but three Huskies - Chad Tramba (77), Moises Martinez (78) and Jake Cohen (83) - earned sectional berths. Stevenson (327) placed fifth, followed by Deerfield (337), Palatine (344) and Wheeling (399).
The rest of the individual sectional qualifiers were Stevenson's Bobby Yun (78), Palatine's Pablo Castro (80), Deerfield's Hunter Whitney (81), Stevenson's Andrew Ryan (82) and Richard Wang (82), Palatine's Kasey May (83) and Deerfield's Owen Moskovitz (84).