Manteno rides balanced scoring to first-ever regional championship

The 2025 season, just the second for the Manteno girls golf team as a full-fledged program, has been one of firsts.

After winning their first Illinois Central Eight Conference title last week, the Panthers followed up that performance in the IHSA Class 1A Dwight Regional at Dwight Country Club on Tuesday by claiming their first-ever regional championship.

Sophomore Genevieve Kvasnicka placed sixth individually with a 93, helping to lead the team to a score of 405 that put them four strokes clear of runner-up Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley.

“I feel like it’s been really exciting and a really good experience,” Kvasnicka said. “For a lot of us, this is our second year playing golf. Not a lot of girls have played, so it makes it really exciting for everyone when we do well as a team together.”

Manteno’s golfers were bunched pretty closely together on the leaderboard.

Sophomore Ava Fundukian placed ninth with a 101. Freshman Olivia Bukowski tied for 18th at 105, and seniors Sophie Peterson and Camryn Haines tied or 20th overall with 106s. Sophomore Madelyn Hoger rounded things out with a 117.

Manteno was the only team to have each of its top four finish at 106 or better, and its five golfers in the top 20 were three more than any other team.

“I’m most proud as the coach that it’s not just having one really good golfer, but it’s our whole team. ...” Manteno coach Mat Clymer said. “We’re excited to go to sectionals next week, because it’s at Wolf Creek (in Pontiac), where we won conference just a week ago. So the girls are familiar with the course. Hopefully we get some good weather like today, and I’m hopeful we can do some amazing things at sectionals.”

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Bishop McNamara's Cassidy Novak prepares to putt as Dwight's Isabella Dinelli, left, Manteno's Genevieve Kvasnicka, right of center, and Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley's Lilyan Sizemore, right, watch during the IHSA Class 1A Dwight Regional at the Dwight Country Club on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025. All four golfers finished in the top six places on the day. (Tiffany Blanchette)

Joining Manteno and GCMS at the 1A Pontiac Sectional will be third-place Iroquois West. The Raiders shot 418 as a team, putting them three strokes ahead of Dwight as the final team to advance in full.

Kaia Kimmel’s 86 put her in second overall, one stroke behind Gibson City’s Lilyan Sizemore.

“I’m excited that we all get to go on together, and I’m excited that my whole family got to see it today. ...” Kimmel said. “I hope we all show up again and play well (at sectionals) and not get down on bad holes. I feel like that’s one of the biggest parts of golf.”

Ella Lunt was second on Iroquois West with a 109, while Karsyn Arie and Aubrey Chandler each shot 115.

The top 10 individual placers not on an advancing team also move on to sectionals, but only eight of those spots were filled at the conclusion of 18 holes Tuesday.

Watseka’s Ainsley Urban (90), Dwight’s Isabella Dinelli (90), Bishop McNamara’s Cassidy Novak (92), Beecher’s Fiona Hagen-Storbeck (97), Watseka’s Kyah Westerfield (97), Hoopeston’s Shay Layden (101), St. Anne’s Andie Zeedyk (102) and Hoopeston’s Mady Klaber (102) all punched their tickets in regulation.

But Dwight’s Brooklin Trainor, Coal City’s Kayla Kowalski and Illinois Lutheran’s Julia Jacobucci all tied for ninth at 103, leading to a playoff to decide which two would claim the final slots.

The playoff started on the 18th hole, where Jacobucci cleared her competitors to claim ninth place. Trainor and Kowalski then headed to No. 10, where Trainor’s second shot found the green on the par-4. She two-putted from there for par, besting Kowalski by a stroke to claim the final sectional spot.

A freshman with just a few short months of experience in the game of golf under her belt, Trainor said the playoff was a little intimidating until that winning putt dropped in.

“It was really nerve-wracking, because I’d never done it before, and it’s my first year of golf overall, so just making it to sectionals would be really cool. ...” she said. “I’m looking to just playing more golf, and being a freshman, it’s really exciting for me.”

Trainor and her fellow sectional qualifiers will next take the course at Wolf Creek Golf Course on Monday morning with a trip to state on the line.