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SHILOH – Edwardsville's boys golf team advanced to Monday's IHSA Class 3A Homewood-Flossmoor Sectional despite some difficult weather conditions.
Considering the conditions on the day – breezy to start, then rainy later on plus a brief delay in the afternoon due to lightning and thunder – the Tigers overcame those to shoot a team 311 to finish second in Tuesday's IHSA Class 3A Belleville East Regional at the par-71, 6,133-yard Clinton Hill Golf Course in Shiloh to advance to the sectional. Quincy won the tournament with a team 304, with O'Fallon also moving into the sectional with a team 341. Springfield (347), the host Lancers (359), Collinsville (361), Granite City (371), Belleville West and Alton (397 each) rounded out the field for the day.
The top three teams and top 10 players from teams who weren't on qualifying teams advanced to the sectional; only one area player, Granite City's Drew Wielgus, advanced as in individual as he fired a 14-over 85. Quincy's Parker Campbell was the day's medalist, carding a 1-over 72 to edge out three players, including the Tigers' Ben Tyrell, who tied for second with 2-over 73s.
“We could have played better, there's no question about that,” EHS boys golf coach Adam Tyler said. “I don't know if we could have played well enough to beat Quincy today; Quincy played really well – you know, a 304 on this course under these conditions with it being windy in the beginning and rainy in the end – 304 is a great score, it's a really good score.
“I know a couple of people are upset with the way they played; we should have shot a little bit better, but at the end of the day, it is what it is and that's how golf works.”
Tyrell's 73 was a solid round, Tyler thought with the weather conditions.
Trevor Laub finished behind Tyrell with a 6-over 77. “I'll tell you what, he's been pretty consistent the last month for us,” Tyler said. “It doesn't matter what course we play or how difficult the course is he's playing, he's playing really well, so that's exciting, especially with him being a sophomore – he's going to be around for a couple of more years.
“It's really exciting to see him play in his first regional and see him really get comfortable out there and have a good round.”
The important thing to Tyler was that the Tigers advanced to the sectional. “At the end of the day, we're not upset with with moving on by any means and you could see by the rest of the scores that it was pretty difficult today and it (the course) played pretty difficult; having said that, we're going to have to play better next week. If we don't play better next week, we're going to be sent home in a hurry.
“We're going to have to move up to the next level and play like we can play; we don't have to play better than what we've played this year, we don't have to any better than what we were earlier this year, but we're going to have to play like we can play.”
The Tigers' Tanner White turned in an 9-over 80 and Jon Ratterman a 10-over 81 to complete EHS' scoring on the day. In addition to Wielgus' 85, the Warriors also had a 93 from Cameron Rubenacker, a 95 from Bennett Smallie and 98 from Brady Charbonnire to round out their scoring. Alton's scorers on the day were Clayton Pilger (93), Adam Stilts (94), Tyler Hazelwood (104) and Aiden Keshner (106).
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