High school boys golf: Kaneland comes up just short at sectional

ELBURN – Kaneland’s boys golf team had home-course advantage, but that wasn’t quite enough for the Knights.

Kaneland shot a 305 at the Class 2A regional it hosted Oct. 4, but Marmion’s 302 was the winning team score.

The Cadets again stood in the Knights’ way at the St. Viator sectional Oct. 11. Both teams shot 320s, but Marmion earned the third and final team state tournament berth thanks to a fifth-score tiebreaker. Brock Williams shot an 88 for Kaneland’s fifth score while Marmion’s Austen Velazquez finished with an 83.

Senior Brett Glennon’s sectional score of 75 and senior Jake Hed’s 78 were good enough to earn individual berths to the Class 2A state meet, which begins Oct. 14 at Weibring Golf Club in Normal.

Carmel won the sectional (303) with Vernon Hills placing second (318).

Kaneland’s Will Marshall, who shot a 68 to win the regional tournament, shot an 82 at the sectional; 79 was the cut for individual state berths. Jeff VanGemert carded an 85 and Jacob Milton had an 89 for the Knights.

After double-bogeying the first hole at the regional tourney, Marshall played the next seven holes at 3-under-par for a front-nine score of 35. On the back nine, Marshall birdied 10, 12, 15 and 18 and left the ball sitting on the lip of the cup on two others. His 4-under-par round of 68 was a personal best.

“I knew there was a lot more golf to play and that my teammates would pick me up,” said Marshall, who put together a solid round in front of coaches from Big Ten schools Illinois, Iowa and Northwestern at the regional. “I let it go, didn’t panic, and just focused on playing the rest of the round one shot at a time.”

Kaneland’s other three regional scorers were Glennon (77), Hed (79) and Milton (81), for a team score of 305. Head coach Mark Meyer was pleased with the way Marshall and the team in general rebounded from a slow start to make it out of the regional.

“We got off to a shaky start but then settled down and played well over the last 15 holes or so,” Meyer said. “Marmion and St. Francis are very strong teams. We shot four strokes better than we did a year ago when we won the regional, so I’m not disappointed in second place.”

While the team ending to the season wasn’t ideal, 2016 will go down as one of the best seasons in the history of the program. The Knights were undefeated in dual meet play and captured tournament titles at Rock Falls on Sept. 3 and at the Northern Illinois Big 12 conference tourney Sept. 28.

The future also is bright. The frosh/soph team claimed the title at the conference tourney with a 354 score.