Golfers Break Through, Qualify Entire Team For Sectional

Decades of frustration ended Tuesday for the Evanston girls golf team.

Assigned to a different Illinois High School Association regional tournament this time around --- and avoiding most of the North Shore powers in the sport with the exception of Loyola Academy --- the Wildkits made program history at the Class 2A Lake Park Regional tournament.

For the first time ever, Evanston’s girls advanced an entire team from the regional to the sectional, claiming the No. 3 qualifying team berth with a program record score of 380 on a sunny day at the Itasca Country Club.

Host Lake Park (319) and Loyola (336) captured the first two of the three automatic team qualifying spots under IHSA rules, but the Kits had no trouble outscoring the other challengers, as Maine South’s fourth place total of 403 caused no nervous moments for the jubilant ETHS players.

After years of trying to overcome competing in “mini state tournaments” against the elite programs and individual golfers from New Trier, Loyola and the two Glenbrook schools at the regional level, Evanston finally broke through when the IHSA changed their postseason assignment.

The Kits don’t mind facing those teams at the sectional --- but getting there is the hard part. Only twice in ETHS history has Evanston qualified as many as three individuals for the sectional, in 2018 (Katie Gemmell, Clara Lynk, Drew Patterson) and again in 2019 (Amelie Koecher, Echo Allen, Gemmell).

Now the team van will be full for the trip to the New Trier Sectional next Monday at Winnetka Golf Club.

“We have no control over where we’re sent. Even if we were at the other (loaded) regional (at Prospect), my goal was just to have four girls under 100 for the first time, and we did that,” said ETHS head coach Karilyn Joyce after junior Tessa Harvey (45-47-92), junior Elise Hilbrant (47-46-93), junior Gemma Sheehan (50-46-96) and sophomore Vivian Gomberg (50-49-99) all achieved that goal.

Also competing for the Kits were junior Kayla Benson (55-56-111) and freshman Nia Henderson (56-55-111).

“I think it’s just great that we got the whole team to advance. These kids have all worked so hard. In years past we couldn’t advance because we couldn’t drive, and now they’re driving the ball so far off the tee it’s just awesome. That’s really what’s helped us keep up with the other teams.

“I didn’t think it was an unrealistic goal for us to get four girls under 100 and as long as we did that, I’m happy. I thought they all shot extremely well today --- and this is not an easy course.”

Harvey tied for 8th place overall in the individual standings and Hilbrant earned 9th place. Lake Park’s Samantha Rottinger (74) and Amaani Patel (75) were the only golfers to break 80 on the par 72 course Tuesday.

Harvey’s showing included a birdie on the No. 9 hole, several pars and the biggest smile on the course after the strokes were added up to prove that the entire Evanston team had another week left to play.

“I am really proud of our whole team. We’ve really improved with our shots, and we’ve really grown mentally, too,” Harvey noted. “We just came together and said we’re going to make history this year. In years past we’ve had some really hard regionals to play in, but once we realized it would be a little easier this year, we know this was something we wanted to do.

“I think some of it (team success) has to do with our ability to flip our mindset now. Instead of beating yourself up after a bad shot, you just have to reshape it and think ‘I can do this better’ next time. I didn’t shoot as well as I wanted to today, but it’s OK. My swing has improved a lot in general since last year and so has my mindset. I just tried to stay positive.”

That lone birdie definitely gave the junior standout a boost Tuesday.

“The big thing for me today was to focus on course management,” she said. “I tried not to hit the ball into the trees and just make the best of it. On No. 9 (a par 5) I knew I needed a drive to get a good score and I hit a pretty long one. I left my second shot a good distance from (in front of) the water, and I think I might have even hit the flag stick on that third shot. That was a pretty difficult hole.”

“Last year I missed getting out of the regional by one stroke. I knew this year I’d most likely make it out as an individual, but it’s definitely more exciting for the team to go. And it’s always great to make some history.”

“We worked our butts off the whole season to be here,” added Hilbrant, who also recorded a single birdie. “We all wanted to make history going into today. We put in a lot of work in the off-season and we were all really dedicated.

“Getting better off the tee really helped, but the short game is where it is for me. Today I had a few 3-putts that could have been eliminated. This is a hard course, and the sloppiness and wind caught me off guard a lot. We don’t play courses like this every day and it was tough. I’ll come back stronger for the sectional.

“I’m just so proud of our whole team. We were confident we were going to make it --- and we did.”