Evanston Golfers Rule Sectional

Putting together four good scores at a high school golf tournament isn’t as easy as it sounds.

It’s not as easy as the members of the Evanston golf team are making it look now, either.

Posting a school record round of 282 Monday at Heritage Oaks Golf Course in Northbrook, the Wildkits won the first sectional tournament championship in program history and advanced to the Illinois High School Association state tournament for just the third time ever as a team.

Freshman Lester Low earned individual runner-up honors with a 2-under-par score of 68 and just missed forcing a playoff for medalist. Teammates Harrison Stracks (70), Luciano Giangrossi (71) and Kieran Low (73) also played near-par golf for the entire round on a sunny day in Northbrook.

This could be the start of something big for a team that head coach Jed Curtis says still hasn’t reached its peak. Evanston outscored two-time Class 3A defending state champion New Trier for the second week in a row, 282 to 287, and third place finisher Glenbrook South (297) also advanced out of the state’s toughest sectional.

They’ll all meet one more time at the Class 3A state finals at The Den at Fox Creek Golf Course in Bloomington October 18-19. The state finals are usually held the same calendar week as the sectional, but the IHSA opted to push the tournament back so there wouldn’t be a conflict with a Jewish religious holiday.

Evanston is back on the state map for the first time since the 2013 season. The only other time ETHS sent a full team to the state finals was back in 1959. Also competing for the Wildkits Monday were juniors Nick Bonaguro (78) and Miles Gomberg (79).

“This is a dream come true,” said Curtis, who guided the 2013 team to a tie for 7th place at State. “You know what’s the most fun? The support, the texts and messages I’ve gotten from all our former players and Wildkit Golf Nation. They’re out there rooting for us and supporting us. It’s really a family affair. Even our seniors (who weren’t in the postseason lineup) were out here supporting the younger kids.

“This is definitely worth the wait. I’m super proud of these kids. We still haven’t played our best golf, though. We talked all week about mental toughness and what that means, and our mantra was also about patience because we knew it would be a slow round and there would be a lot of opportunities to get distracted. We just wanted to control what we can and play patient golf.”

A bounce-back performance by Stracks, the only senior in the starting lineup, was critical to Evanston’s sectional success. He shot a less-than-satisfying 78 on the same course at the Central Suburban League South division tournament and his 80 didn’t even count toward the team total at the regional tourney.

“Harrison is our senior leader, our captain, and he played like a man today,” Curtis praised. “He was coming off a regional tournament where he expected more from himself and he came out today with a laser focus. He was really locked in. He was really dialed in right from the start. He wanted to set the tone for us --- and he did.”

“I didn’t miss a fairway with my driver. I hit a lot of greens, and I played steady golf, what our coach calls boring golf,” Stracks kidded. “It feels so great to win a sectional. I knew we could do it because I knew we had the talent. It was just about putting together four good scores.

“Today I got off to a really strong start (birdie on the No. 1 hole) and I just kept grinding out pars (12 of them, with 3 total birdies) and giving myself some birdie looks. I got a birdie on No. 8 and historically, that’s a hole where I haven’t played well. So that felt really, really good.

“Last week I said we were trending in the right direction --- and that came true today. These younger guys have played so well and they’ve continued to do so, that’s what we’re sectional champs.”

One of those younger guys, freshman Lester Low, burned up the front nine with a sizzling 33 and came back with a 35. He fell one shot short of the 67 by Glenbrook South’s Kevin Schuh, needing a par on the final hole to force a playoff.

Low finished with birdies on two of the last four holes for a total of four on the day.

“I’m proud of the way I was able to fight through all 18 holes,” said the first-year phenom. “I had some challenges on the 16th and 17th holes and I was able to overcome them. I did hit a good drive on that last hole but it ended up in a divot, so I didn’t get a break there.

“We made history today and winning the sectional is a great feeling. We did it as a team, and I love all of these guys. It makes it even more special to go to State with all of them. We won the hardest sectional in the state, and if we can win this, we can do anything. The sky’s the limit for us.”

Rarely in difficulty on the front nine, Low handled adversity when he had to. After carding a bogey because he three-putted on No. 6, the freshman dug deeper and salvaged a birdie on the next hole even after his tee shot found a sand trap on the left. On No. 9, he added a 20-foot putt for a par.

Fellow freshman Giangrossi didn’t exactly take the title in stride. Celebrating with his teammates was a new experience in a team sport, compared to the individual aspect of golf for players prior to the start of their high school careers.

“I’ve played on other teams (in other sports), but this is the best team I’ve ever been part of,” Giangrossi beamed. “Everyone really supports each other. It’s really cool to win this and this is going to be one happy, happy bus.

“Honestly, I’m surprised we played as well as we did. I didn’t expect to win this sectional. This is the first time we’ve played close to good all together all year. And I still felt I could’ve done better. I had three birdies (No. 8, No. 17, No. 18) and that was great because at the start of the year I wasn’t finishing rounds well. It’s a mental thing when you’re going down the stretch and today I was able to finish with two birdies.”

After missing out on potential trips to State his first two years in an ETHS uniform, older brother Kieran Low was happy to punch a ticket with the entire squad. But the junior is still hoping the chance to play another week will bring out better scores for him personally.

If that happens, the Kits will be the team to beat without question in Bloomington.

“I had a lot of chances today and I didn’t convert them,” Kieran Low explained. “I finished strong again this week (with birdies on No. 15 and No. 17), but other than that it’s been the same old, same old. I’m just glad the team was able to get it done today.

“My putting has really been struggling the last month, month and a half, two months? I just have to have more confidence in myself to break out of that cycle. Right now I don’t have the answers. I just have to believe in myself and trust in the work I put in. It’s an issue for State, because we’ll need every shot we can get down there.”

Curtis knows better than to put the pressure on his young team with talk of a state championship. But the 36-hole, two-day test in Bloomington could be the start of something big for Evanston.

“Winning the sectional is a confidence builder for us. We’re not going to be happy just to go down there,” declared the veteran coach. “We’re going down there to compete for a trophy --- to compete for the big one. I feel like this team can play with anybody. We played there in the summer, and in our first tournament this season, so the kids are familiar with the course.

“This is where they wanted to be. They believe they can play with the best, and I feel great about our chances.”