ETHS girls golf: Frigo falls short in bid to reach sectional

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Mari Frigo and the rest of the golfers competing at the Class 2A Stevenson Regional tournament Thursday at Pine Meadow Golf Club in Mundelein weren’t looking for a helping hand from anyone in their bids to advance in the Illinois High School Association state series.

They just wanted a level playing field – and they didn’t get it after the IHSA assigned four of the top 10 teams in the state to the same site.

The trickle-down effect from the reshuffling of the IHSA’s map was part of the reason that Frigo and her Evanston teammates saw their seasons end Thursday. Frigo couldn’t put up a good enough score – she finished with a 94 – to claim one of the at-large individual berths and joined her ETHS teammates on the sidelines. Since only the top three scoring teams automatically advanced, fourth place finisher New Trier gobbled up two of the 10 remaining individual berths and Lake Forest, Deerfield and Glenbrook South swept the other spots.

Frigo, a junior, was left on the outside looking in when the field of potential qualifiers was cut off at 87. She’d be the first to tell you she wasn’t happy with her round after dropping her average into the 80s this season, but her score of 94 would have been good enough to advance out of nine of the other 15 regionals conducted statewide on Thursday.

At the Fremd Regional, two golfers from Maine South shot 103s – and will keep playing next week. Another competitor at that tourney fired a 100 and earned a Q for qualifier.Glenbrook North (293), Stevenson (297) and Loyola Academy (316) set the scoring pace in the team standings and will send full squads to the Buffalo Grove Sectional next Monday. Evanston placed ninth in the 10-team field with a score of 417.

Katie Magner, a senior from Loyola, captured individual medalist honors with a 69.Had Frigo advanced, it would have marked the first time in program history that Evanston competitors reached the sectional in back-to-back seasons. But veteran ETHS head coach Karilyn Joyce wasn’t just thinking of her own team’s success when discussing the IHSA move.

“I’d love to know what the IHSA map looks like,” said Joyce, whose team has never played in the same postseason tournament with Stevenson before. “This is supposed to be about the kids – all of the kids, not just ours – and they didn’t get a fair shot this year. There are so many good players who didn’t get in because of that decision.

“We’d have had a better chance if we had been sent to Palatine, like Niles West was. It is what it is. But this was a mini-state tournament here today – and that’s wrong.

“Mari came in knowing that because of the field we were in she had to shoot in the low, low 80s to get to the sectional. It would have been nice for her to get out of the regional, but she’s still got next year.”

“If it doesn’t change next year, I have no excuses,” Frigo said. “I just have to get better. My goal was to get to sectional and right now it feels like I let myself down. I know what I need to improve on when it comes to my golf game, and my mental game, and next year I want to be a good example for my teammates, too.

“When you play against better people, you play better. Everyone knows that. But playing in this regional against high-stake competitors like this is super frustrating. I know I could have gone on [to the sectional]. My goal coming over on the bus was an 85 or under. I didn’t get where I want to be.”

Frigo was one of five underclassmen in the Evanston lineup on Thursday. The Wildkits also got a 51-47-98 from junior Lili Procter, a 56-56-112 from freshman Tessa Harvey, a 57-56-113 from junior Molly O’Hare, a 59-57-116 from junior Olivia Ohlson and a 66-69-135 from senior Daisy Banks.

Frigo did record a birdie on the No. 15 hole and pars on No. 4 and No. 8, but couldn’t put together the kind of consistent play that marked her major improvement from sophomore to junior year.

“Mari did a great job after being in the 90s last year,” Joyce praised. “She was very consistent off the tee this year. Her inconsistency, like most of the other girls, came from 50 yards in and with her putting.”

Frigo was still tinkering with her swing mechanics coming into postseason play and knew she left a lot of shots on the course Thursday.

“I had a few holes that I definitely messed up,” she said. “Over the past two weeks I’ve been trying to reconstruct my swing so I didn’t slice or shank so much. I’ve been trying to hit straighter – my real issue has been slicing – and I’ve had to adjust my setup. I’ve been working super hard at it, but right now I’m not that confident in my swing. And it wasn’t good enough today.

“I’ve been improving each year and I’ve really enjoyed this season. I know I just can’t judge the whole season on one day. But playing bogey golf is really frustrating to me. It’s good, I guess, but it won’t get me where I want to be.”

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