Girls Golf: Catie Nekola, St. Charles North run away with regional title; St. Francis' Katherine Lemke medalist

BARTLETT – St. Charles North was in a league of its own during Wednesday’s Class 2A South Elgin girls golf regional while St. Francis edged Wheaton North by a stroke and St. Charles East by a tiebreaker to advance to next week’s sectional.

The North Stars won with a 334 while the Spartans and Saints each carded a 353 and the Falcons followed with a 354. Geneva was fifth with a 364.

St. Charles North and St. Francis advance to the Rolling Meadows sectional on Oct. 12 at Arlington Lakes Golf Course in Arlington Heights.

“The scores were a lot higher than we anticipated and certainly not our plan, but I think the course played tough for everybody with a lot of elevations to the green here and distance management plays a huge part,” North Stars coach Steven Dodd said. “Still, my top four players had some difficult single hole high numbers and something we’ve been working on is mental strength and how to recover from bad holes and tough shots.”

For junior Catie Nekola, who placed second overall to lead the North Stars, it was responding to a triple bogey midway through her round.

“Brushing off hole No. 10 was a big accomplishment for me,” Nekola said. “Normally I would’ve been crying and completely done with the round with a bunch of holes left. That’s something I’ve been working on for a while now.”

Seniors Isabella Spinazze (83) and Sophia Evers (88) and junior Aleksa Gizewicz (85) contributed to the winning North Stars' team total.

“I hope that there are a lot of positive thoughts about some shots today even though there were some tough holes,” Dodd said. “Catie did that after No. 10 and found her groove and was competing again.”

St. Francis senior Katherine Lemke was medalist with a 77.

“I think there were just a couple holes where I may have lost my focus for a bit,” Lemke said. “But I think I hit the 14th or 15th hole and said mentally I’ve got to get through and come out of it.”

Lemke's ball settled in the bunker on No. 18, but she didn’t panic.

“I said ‘You’re getting up and down,’ and I got up and down so that was good,” Lemke said. “I felt really good about ball striking and my tee shots today.”

Freshman Emmy Hollarbush (89), junior Sarah Grivetti (92), senior Cameron Marr (95) and sophomores Carly Chriske (96) and Katherine Lilly (101) helped the Spartans advance with Lilly’s score being the tiebreaker as the team’s sixth score.

“I was not thinking about my score that much but every shot counted today,” Lilly said. “I just had to hit some good ones since every one counts. I was happy with my round. It’s a tough course and I played the best that I could.”

The Saints would’ve advanced to the sectional in a typical year where more teams are allowed to feed into it. Instead, they’ll turn their focus to next year while junior Allison Edgar (83) will represent the Saints next week.

“Our goal in a normal year is to make it out of a regional,” Saints coach Jarod Gutesha said. “That was our goal this year but then chaos hit and (it was) decided it was two teams advancing so that went from three to two. So we still met our goal, finishing in the top three in the regional, so we’ll look at that as a positive moving forward.”

Geneva junior Reese Clark (80) advanced, recording a 39 on the back nine and finishing in fourth place.

“Considering the weather, I was pretty uncomfortable out there,” Clark said. “One hole was good, the next was bad. It’s hard to go out there and have that uncertainty of when am I going to have multiple good holes in a row.”

Freshman Bridget Craig (82) was the lone sectional qualifier for Wheaton North, as senior Grace Quinn (84) just fell short.

“It didn’t go as well as I hoped, but that’s the way it goes,” Quinn said. “I was just being grateful on the course and that helped me stay inside and not blow up. I was just glad to play with all of my teammates out there and do the best I could.”

Craig also was hoping to finish higher in the standings as well, but played well enough to extend her season after her regional debut.

“I was a little nervous but excited to play,” Craig said. “I had hoped to do better, but that didn’t work out, but I tried to fight as hard as I could and I did the best I could.”

West Chicago senior Kendall Farm (79) also qualified for next Tuesday’s sectional.

Glenbard West (387) was sixth, South Elgin and Glenbard North (401 each) tied for seventh place and Batavia (413) rounded out the field.