Girls golf: Neuqua Valley wins fourth straight DVC title

Neuqua Valley senior Rebecca Wu will attend college next fall and hopes to major in aerospace engineering, a field that entails designing, developing and testing aircraft and spacecraft.

"I've always been a math person," she said, "and I love space and astronomy."

Wu should have a leg up on the rest of her classmates from day one - after all, she's already learned how to make a golf ball fly a long way.

The senior teed it up and drove the green on Aurora's Phillips Park Golf Course par 4 eighth hole Wednesday, and just missed a 10-foot putt for an eagle.

She birdied the hole, though, and that gave her the momentum to shoot a stellar round.

Wu's 79, combined with 74s from teammates Mady Coffey and Sophie Lagman, and an 84 by Carley Rogers, saw the Wildcats win their fourth consecutive DuPage Valley Conference championship.

Metea Valley and Waubonsie Valley tied for second.

Coffey and Lagman deadlocked for the best score of the day, with Coffey winning the individual crown by winning a 2-hole playoff with Lagman.

"This means a lot," said Coffey, who earned medalist honors, "especially going through a playoff with one of my teammates."

Lagman, who along with Wu has been on all of the last four league title teams, said that it shows the hard work she and her team have put in on the links has paid off.

"I'm just happy that I could do it with these same girls (the seniors)," said Lagman, "and also all of the great underclassmen that are here too. It's a big accomplishment."

Sophomore Mckenna Wigfield of Metea Valley won the third place medal by carding a 76, while her sister, senior Madison, was fourth at 79.

Mckenna said that there's "always a little bit of competition" between the siblings, but playing together also helps propel them to do their best.

"If anything it pushes us to be better for each other," said the sophomore. "And being on the same team, we're always thinking about picking each other up."

"I was feeling good coming out here today. I've been working really hard, and you're kind of in a good groove now considering it's the end of the season."

The remainder of the top 10 individual medals went to Addy Ciganek of Naperville North, fifth at 79; Wu in sixth place; Hannah Lee from Waubonsie Valley (seventh, 82); Rogers (eighth); Ansley Ellis of Metea Valley (ninth, 84); and Waubonsie's Mina Shyam (10th, 84).

Neuqua Valley coach John Keller was impressed with the effort his entire eight-golfer team at Phillips Park.

"Our fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth scores were solid all the way down and that's what we were looking for," said Keller. "Have good scores up and down the line, that was our focus today.

"What I told the kids coming in was that we already had a nice season, we were in first place in conference but we were kind of in a rut for a couple weeks. No matter where we ended up today we wanted to get back to playing well, and we really did today."

After the tourney, Wu, who took up golf at age 6, said that approaching the final weeks of her prep campaign is "a little bittersweet."

"This is the first team I've ever been on because before this (prior to high school) I just played individually."

"But also, I'm excited, because I feel I'm at a point in my life where I have to grow and move on."