Grace Curran and Lincoln-Way Central picked a good time to put up the best scores of their season Wednesday at Green Gardens.
Despite cold and windy conditions, Curran carded a sizzling 2-under 68 for medalist honors as the Knights repeated their SouthWest Suburban Red title with a 302, the best mark of their season by a whopping 21 strokes.
“It really gives us confidence going into regionals, sectionals and possibly state,” Curran said. “Now it’s crunch time. We want to make it somewhere, and the goal is state.”
Curran just missed out on an individual state berth last season. The sophomore has used that for motivation ever since.
“Last year I was very disappointed in myself,” Curran said. “I never wanted to feel that feeling again. I worked my butt off in the summer and it put everything into perspective.”
Curran, the conference runner-up last year, bested teammate and defending champion Bri Bolden (74) for top honors. Bolden was the Knights’ lone state qualifier last year.
“We know we’re the hunted,” Central coach Brian Shannon said. “But if we can minimize our errors, things will work out. I try to tell the girls that just because you’re good doesn’t mean you’re going to shoot well.”
But that was the case Wednesday. The Knights’ Taylor Miron added a career-best 76 to finish third. Carly Schiene (84) and Hannah Mastandrea (89) placed sixth and ninth, respectively.
“(Curran and Bolden) are such good players, so you really pick up on their techniques and how they study they game,” Miron said.
Lincoln-Way East’s Hannah Hill (79) finished fourth as the Griffins took second with a 339. Hill said she was motivated to a season’s best by the skilled players who Lincoln-Way Central had in the field.
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“They’re crazy talented,” said Hill, a junior transfer from Lincoln-Way North. “Just look at their scores. I think they could all go Division I. It makes you want to hang in there with them.”
Lincoln-Way West (365), Bradley-Bourbonnais (425) and Andrew (455) were next in line in the team race.
West’s Hannah Slater (80) placed fifth with the best score of her career. Her previous record was an 86.
“My dad came and watched, so that was really cool,” Slater said. “It was only the second time he’s been able to see me play. He used to work in India and now he’s working in Switzerland.
“It’s such a mental game. I was doing a good job of taking it one shot at a time instead of getting ahead of myself. Everything kind of clicked.”
Lincoln-Way East’s Claire Moutvic (85), Laura Lewis (85) and Sofia Anderson (90) rounded out the top 10.
Logan Malloy is a freelance writer for the Daily Southtown.