Isha Patel knew exactly how she wanted to play her final DuKane Conference girls golf championship Tuesday.

The boring way.

No looking at the scorecard or the leaderboard. No booming tee shots with the driver.

It was just the Lake Park senior, her golf club (mainly some sort of iron), and her golf ball.

“I just didn’t want to make myself nervous,” she said. “My goal was to just hit the fairways and greens. I didn’t even pull out my driver all that much, just played to the distance.”

Turns out, it was the approach she needed.

Isha Patel finished the 18-hole course at Phillips Park Golf Course with a 2-under 70 to take medalist honors and helped pace Lake Park to a commanding team performance to claim the DuKane Conference title for the third time in four years.

“I think the girls honed in on the philosophy of playing for each other and play as a team, and it showed,” Lancers coach James Chellson said. “And Isha winning the tournament was tremendous. She’s been having a lot of breakout tournaments this year, and I’m glad to see it’s all finally coming together for her. She desperately wanted to perform well at the end of the year and it showed.”

The Lancers finished the day with a team score of 17-over 305, which was 28 shots ahead of second-place St. Charles North, who won the title a season ago. The score not only broke a school record (313 at the Class 2A Buffalo Grove regional in 2024), but also a conference championship record.

“They wanted to come out here and show that they had the potential to not self implode,” Chellson said. “That was what happened a lot last year. They tried to overcome a lot of adversity and try to make up a lot of shots. This year, they took on a much more mature mentality, and it showed because they played extremely well.”

Besides Isha Patel, junior Amaani Patel, her cousin, shot 5-over 77 (fourth), junior Samantha Rottinger went 6-over 78 (tied for fifth) and sophomore Jenna Danicek rounded out the scorers with an 8-over 80 to tie for seventh.

“This was huge for us,” Isha Patel said. “Going into regionals and sectionals, we’re going to face some good teams, but this score shows that we can compete against those teams and compete against the best girls in the state.”

St. Charles North’s Kayla Beu, the reigning conference champion, ended the day in second place, shooting a 1-over 73 on the day. While she won’t get the chance to get the four-peat, she was happy with her recovery after starting the day with three consecutive bogeys.

“Those first couple of holes I had to grind mentally because I was just nervous,” Beu said. “But after those three, I just decided to play boring golf, because that worked really well for me last season and it calmed me. But I’m proud of how I finished.”

Behind Beu was her fellow North Stars sophomore Abby Gizewicz, who finished the day with a 2-over-74 to round out the top 3. Senior Javeria Hasan and junior Taylor Nelson rounded out the scorers for the North Stars, both shooting 21-over 93 for 23rd for a team score of 333.

“We knew that Lake Park was going to be a formidable opponent this time around,” North Stars coach Steven Dodd said. “Kayla and Abby had outstanding rounds, but I’m sure they’ll be disappointed. But they’re quality golfers and they’ve really carried our team this season. And it was awesome to see Javeria and Taylor also score for the team.”

St. Charles East rounded out the team podium on the day, finishing with a score of 339. Junior Emily Geurts led the Saints with a 9-over 81 to tie for ninth, with seniors Charlotte Tassone (11-over 83, 12th), Olivia Vosburgh (14-over 86, t-14th) and Elizabeth Parker (17-over 89, 18th) rounding out the scoring.

“All of our counters were under 90 on the day, so that’s a really good day for us, Saints coach Jarod Gutesha said. ”But hats off to Lake Park, they played extremely well."

Wheaton-Warrenville South finished the day in fourth with an overall 356, with senior Caroline Schulz leading the way after shooting an 8-over 80 to tie for seventh. Geneva rounded out the top 5 teams with a 372, led by an 18-over 90 by senior Paige Flanigan for 19th.

Glenbard North (377) edged out Batavia (378) for sixth place in the team scoring. Freshman Angelina Nguyen led the Panthers after shooting 10-over 82 for 11th, while the Bulldogs were led by junior Avery Sheehan, who tied for fifth after shooting 6-over 78.

Wheaton North rounded out the teams after scoring a 387 and were led by sophomore Ariana Savenok, who shot a 12-over 84 for 13th.