Riverside-Brookfield High School junior Mayan Covarrubias momentarily believed on Oct. 3 that she wasn’t qualifying for her second straight IHSA Class 2A girls golf state meet.
Thinking she needed a birdie on the 18th hole at the Hinsdale South Sectional to advance, the attempt lipped out.
“It just kind of burned the edge. I thought that was it,” Covarrubias said.
Covarrubias felt a whole lot happier shortly afterwards.
She actually made the playoff for the final two individual berths and qualified again on the fourth playoff hole at Village Greens of Woodridge after shooting a 79.
Her playoff birdie got the final berth over the two other remaining candidates.
The state meet is Oct. 7-8 in Forsyth. Covarrubias also shared the final sectional qualifying score of 79 in 2021 and shot 101 at state.
“It’s a really good feeling,” said Covarrubias. “It was definitely not easy.”
Freshman Lucia Vazzana (92) and sophomore Taryn Schultz (96) also made their sectional debuts after the Bulldogs just missed advancing as a team.
At the IHSA Shepard Regional on Sept. 29, their 355 tied for the third and final team spot but lost on a fifth-score tiebreaker with Mother McAuley (93 to 99). The Mighty Macs’ Emma Gudenau created the tie by sinking a 40-foot downhill putt.
Covarrubias (76), who tied for second, and Vazzana and Schultz (91s) were among the 10 advancing individuals not among the three advancing teams. Other scorers were seniors Ava Storandt (97), one shot from the individual cutoff, Sophie Swicionis (99) and Amelia Gardiner (113).
“My round went really good. I felt like I played the best I’ve played in a while,” said Vazzana, an All-Metro Suburban Conference golfer with Covarrubias. “I felt like I really prepared for this course and did my best.”
“I played pretty well. It’s a pretty good round, one of my best rounds probably,” Schultz said. “It was one (stroke) over what I was shooting for.”
RBHS boys golf
The Bulldogs had four individual qualifiers for the 3A Conant Sectional on Oct. 3 at the Bridges of Poplar Creek – junior Joey Garvey and sophomore Josh Udelson (92s) and seniors Marc Kaplan (93) and Jake Tyler (111).
Co-captains Garvey and Kaplan also were individual sectional qualifiers in 2021.
“It was a lot of good experience. We played a lot of rounds this year, a lot of different courses,” Garvey said. “I’m hoping to make that jump next year, make it downstate.”
The Bulldogs were fifth (335) at the Payton Regional on Sept. 28. Garvey (78), Tyler (83) and Udelson and Kaplan (87) were among the 10 advancing individuals not among the three advancing teams. Senior Will Domanowski (89) was one stroke from the cutoff score and sophomore Brady McCallum shot 100.
Nazareth girls golf
Junior Gigi Montoro of North Riverside and the Nazareth Academy girls golf team are heading to the IHSA Class 1A state meet Oct. 7-8 in Decatur.
The Roadrunners (412) were the third and final advancing team out at the Sandwich Sectional on Oct. 3. Montoro (112) was the Roadrunners’ fifth score.
Montoro’s 92 helped the Roadrunners finish second (372) at the Rosary Regional on Sept. 28.
