Plainfield North captures Southwest Prairie crown

Updated: September 27, 2011 6:52PM

Just like the regular dual season, the Southwest Prairie Conference boys golf meet was as close at it was competitive Tuesday at Whitetail Ridge in Yorkville.

Plainfield North stayed the course and was a cut above the rest to win the program’s first league championship in the sport. The Tigers shot a 318 to win the meet and overall conference championship.

“That’s pretty special,” North freshman Taylor Hollingshaus said. “That’s our first conference championship in golf, so that’s pretty cool.”

“It was a very nerve-racking experience, but that’s our first conference championship in school history,” North coach Brad Shinovich said. “We had four teams today that whoever won the tournament was going to win the conference.”

Plainfield North entered the tournament with 12 points. Two-time defending champion Plainfield Central, Plainfield South and Oswego were just two points back with 10 points each.

“Just like they did all year, they showed that scores can come from anyone on the team,” Shinovich said. “To shoot a 318, we’ll take that in any tournament, let alone the conference tournament in these conditions.”

Hollingshaus and Patrick McCarthy each shot 79 during an on-and-off rain and the temperature near 60.

“All of our guys shot solid today, so we played well,” McCarthy said.

“In the beginning of the year, we almost lost to Plainfield East,” Hollingshaus said. “We’ve come a long way this year. We grinded it out today and had to fight for every stroke.”

Minooka shot a 320 to take second at the meet and second overall with 16 points.

Plainfield South’s Matt Ward entered the meet with 271/2 individual conference points and a 71/2-point lead on Plainfield Central’s Mitch Young.

However, Ward settled for his third all-SPC medal with an 80 as Young shot a 1-over-par 72 to win the individual conference championship.

“I knew I had to put up a good score if we wanted to do well as a team,” said Young, who is also a three-time All-SPC performer. “Unfortunately, we didn’t win conference. It’s disappointing to see our conference championship run go down today.”

Young’s round featured five birdies.

“I just wanted to shoot as low as I could and it worked out,” Young said. “I played really well. I made a lot of birdies, which was really nice because it was really wet out there.”

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.