NL_101316

44 | October 13, 2016 | The New Lenox Patriot sports
newlenoxpatriot.com
Boys Golf
New Lenox schools shine in regional, all advance
Randy Whalen
Freelance Reporter
The IHSA boys golf regional
on Oct. 4 took place
in Joliet, but it was New
Lenox that ruled.
That’s because all three of
the advancing teams were
from New Lenox. As expected,
Providence — behind
a 6-under-par 66 from
top medalist Ricky Costello
— shot 290 as a team and
cruised to its fourth regional
title in a row in the Joliet
Township Class 3A regional
at Wedgewood Golf Course.
Lincoln-Way Central
(310) finished second and
Lincoln-Way West (326),
playing in its first Class 3A
tournament, edged four other
teams to secure the final
team spot in the Pekin Sectional.
The Top 3 teams and
Top 10 individuals — none
from those teams — advanced
to the Monday, Oct.
10 sectional at Lick Creek
Golf Course in Pekin.
The regional highlights
all started with Costello’s
performance. The senior,
who tied for sixth individually
at the state tournament
two years ago and tied for
fourth last season, matched
the school record for strokes
under par and was one off
the overall low score.
“It’s my lowest round in
a tournament, so that’s extremely
good,” Costello
said. “It’s a good confidencebuilder
going into the [final]
week.”
That was helped by having
two eagles on par 5s in
the round. Those came on
holes six and 11. Costello
scored a 31 on the back
nine, going birdie, eagle,
birdie starting on hole No.
10 and then adding three
more birdies starting at the
15th hole.
“I’ve never had two eagles
in an 18-hole round,”
Costello said. “My irons
were driving really well, up
to 390 yards.”
Costello, who has committed
to Iowa State University,
certainly hoped to end
his high school career with
a fourth straight trip to the
Class 3A state finals, which
will be held on Friday, Oct.
14 and Saturday, Oct. 15, at
The Den at Fox Creek Golf
Course in Bloomington.
“He knew the 6-under
was the record, so he tried
to break it,” said Providence
coach John Platt of Costello.
“We played well, but [to advance]
everyone [had] to finish
their rounds too.”
Rounding out the top four
individual scores for Providence
were seniors Michael
Cascino (71), Zach Bilotta
(76) and Gino Sanfilippo
(77). Junior Tyler Roat (78)
and senior Adam Harrington
(91) were the other golfers
for the Celtics.
For Central, consistency
was the key. The Knights’
Top 3 golfers were all separated
by one stroke, and only
10 strokes separated their
No. 1 through No. 6 spots.
Jason White (75) led the
way while fellow senior
Cam Pyle (76) was right behind.
Juniors Edson Charles
(77) and Ryan Nolan (82)
completed the Top 4, but seniors
Nathan Viola (84) and
Trent Sorensen (85) were
there too.
“[White] did a great job all
year of getting himself ready
for the regional,” said Central
coach Ryan Pohlmann.
“He was out in the same
group as [Costello]. Plus we
had [Pyle] shoot a 76, and
that was his best 18-hole
score.”
White was two strokes off
his season best of 73, registered
on Sept. 10 at the Providence
Invite. He said he had
Providence medalist Ricky Costello, who shot a 6-under 66,
drives the ball during his round.
been looking forward to the
regional competition.
“I love it, because we all
played well and worked really
hard over the winter,”
White said. “To be able
bring it out here when it mattered
means a lot. This is the
best time of the year.”
That certainly was also the
case for West. Moving up to
Class 3A this fall, the Warriors
were competitive, but
not expected to advance out
of the regional. They, however,
were at their best last
week.
“We’ve been close all
year,” said West coach Donna
Thompson. “The boys
have worked hard and I am
very, very proud [of] them.
People kept saying to us,
‘Good luck in 3A.’ Here we
are.”
The Warriors, with only
two seniors on the team,
were paced by one of them,
Nolan Hullinger (78). Hullinger
entered with an 86
average and shot his career
best at the regional by two
strokes, and tied for 10th
overall.
“I played really well,”
Hullinger said. “My putting
and chipping [were] really
good today, a lot better than
usual. Going into No. 6, I
was 4-over, but then I made
a birdie on that hole and that
did it. That kind of turned
my round around.”
Including the birdie on
No. 6, Hullinger was only
2-over the rest of the way.
Thompson, however, gave
him specific instructions
down the stretch.
“I was told not to look at
Lincoln-Way West’s Nolan Hullinger reads the green before
placing his ball in front of his marker Oct. 4 during the
Class 3A regional at Wedgewood Golf Course.
Photos by Jason Maholy/22nd Century Media
my scorecard until the end,”
he said. “But I [was] excited
to go [to sectional] and go
with the team.”
Juniors Tyler Hubbs (82)
and Paul Negri (83), along
with sophomore Collin
Phelps (83), were the Top 4
scorers for West. Senior Pat
Potter (84) and sophomore
Dylan Adair (90) rounded
out the West golfers.
West needed every stroke,
as four teams competed
closely for fourth-throughseventh
place. Those included
Joliet Co-Op (327),
Homewood-Flossmoor
(328), Andrew (329) and
Lincoln-Way East (331).
Crete-Monee (381) and
Thornton Fractional South
(404) were the other scores.
Lincoln-Way Central junior
Ryan Nolan hits a pitch shot
onto the green.