IESA Headlines

2016 IESA Golf State Tournament Tees Off Saturday

Students from Illinois Elementary School Association (IESA) member schools will compete in the seventh annual Golf State Tournament at Kellogg Golf Course in Peoria on Saturday, September 17. There will be over 140 students who will make the trip to compete in the event this weekend. A complete list of the individuals, participating schools, and tee times is located on the IESA website at the following link:

http://www.iesa.org/activities/go/times_State.asp?Year=2016

This will mark the fourth year that the Kellogg Golf Course in Peoria has hosted the State Tournament. The state site contains two different courses, the Executive 9 and the Kellogg Course, both of which will be in use Saturday. The championship 18 hole Kellogg Course features bent grass fairways and greens. The Peoria Park District assists in the administration of the tournament. In conjunction with the Peoria Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Park District sponsors a reception for the golfers on Friday from 6-8 p.m. at the Learning Center across the street from Kellogg Golf Course. Schools need to register for the event and they will need to RSVP to Trianna Stark (tsark@peoria.org) by 12 noon on Thursday if they want to attend the Friday reception. Pizza is available to the golfers as well as use of the driving range. Schools can access the following link to register:

http://www.iesa.org/documents/activities/IESA-GO_FridayReg.pdf

The sectional qualifying tournaments were held last Saturday at seven different sites across the state. This is the third year that the boys and the second year that the girls advanced to the finals as a result of sectional tournaments. The state final will consist of a girls and boys division. All participants will compete in one 18 hole round of golf. The girls will play the Executive 9 and nine holes of the championship 18. The boys will play the championship 18.

The first tee time on Saturday is scheduled to begin at 7:00 a.m. for the girls and 9:00 a.m. for the boys.

The boys competed in their sectional qualifier this past Saturday at four different sites. Sectional A was held at Ingersoll Golf Course in Rockford; Sectional B was held at Prairie Vista Golf Course in Bloomington, Sectional C was held at Eagle Ridge Golf Course in Paris, and Sectional D was held at Shambolee Gold Course in Petersburg. Due to a couple of factors including paid participants who did not show for the sectional, the number of golfers who qualified for the state final from each sectional varied slightly. Sectional A had 20 qualifiers; Sectional B had 18 qualifiers; Sectional C had 17 qualifiers; and Sectional D had 21 qualifiers. Two golfers shot 75 at Ingersoll---Shubham Nain, an 8th grader from Willowbrook Westview Hills and Benjamin Sluzas, an 8th grader from Homer Glen Homer. Neither golfer participated in last year's finals. Matthew Lee from Barrington Station fired a 77 for 3rd place in the sectional. Lee placed 29th last year. The medalist for Sectional B was Weston Walker, a 6th grader from Peoria Christian who toured the tough Prairie Vista layout with a 68 including a sizzling 31 on the back 9. Walker placed 2nd in the finals last year as a 5th grader and has stamped himself as one of the favorites for the individual championship this year. A pair of 8th graders placed 2nd as each carded a 78 at Prairie Vista---Mason Minkel from Pekin Broadmoor and Jeremy Olt from Peoria Concordia will be looking to finish in the top 10 on Saturday. Minkel placed 20th last year. Mathew Barker, an 8th grader from Dows Tri-Valley was the medalist in Sectional C with a 78, two strokes better than Luke Bradley, a 7th grader from Paris Crestwood. Each will be playing in his first IESA state golf finals. Thomas Bumann, an 8th grader from Woodhull AlWood, carded a 74 to take home 1st place honors in Sectional D. Bumann finished in a tie for 6th place last year after shooting an 81 at Kellogg. Three golfers from Jacksonville Turner finished 2-4 at the sectional---Brady Kaufman a 7th grader; Aydin Folker an 8th grader; and Tysyn Mast also a 7th grader. Folker placed 13th in the finals last year. Other golfers who finished in the top 25 last year who will be returning to Peoria are Matthew O'Toole from Barrington Station; Jadon Wheeler from Jacksonville Westfair; and Braeden Duncan from Macomb.

Three courses served as sectional hosts last Saturday for the girls ---Sectional A was held at Senica's Oak Ridge Golf Club in LaSalle; Sectional B was held at Madison Golf Course in Peoria; and Sectional C was played at Country Hills Golf Course in Greenview. There are 24 qualifiers from Sectional A; 24 qualifiers from Sectional B; and 24 qualifiers from Sectional C. Lexi Schulman, a 6th grader from Vernon Hills Hawthorn North fired a 79 to capture first place in Sectional A. This will be her first appearance in the state finals. Sophia Sulkar, a 7th grader from Barrington Prairie shot an 81 for 2nd place in the sectional. Reagan Kennedy, a 6th grader from Normal Epiphany captured medalist honors in Sectional B with an 84 at Madison Golf Course in Peoria. Jadyn Spinks from Normal Chiddix and Jaiden Mapugay from Normal Metcalf finished in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. Mapugay placed 9th last year. Sectional C had a close finish for 1st place as Sofia Lowis an 8th grader from Springfield Blessed Sacrament beat Karlie Schnepp, also an 8th grader from Rochester to win medalist honors in Sectional C. Lowis shot a 90 while Schnepp shot 92. Lowis placed 14th last year. Other golfers who finished in the top 25 last year who will be returning to Peoria are Dani Schrock from Pontiac JHS; Elaine Grant from Chillicothe; Katie Steinman from Bloomington Corpus Christi; Haylee Hornback from Peoria Norwood; Morgan Anderson from Shorewood Troy; Katie Chevalier from Quincy; Kylie Hundman from Bloomington Corpus Christi; Lainie Torrance from Macomb,; and Macy Ludwig from Effingham St. Anthony.

The awards ceremony will take place after the last golfers have completed their round. Individual awards will be given during the ceremony, with the top 10 finishers in each division receiving medals.

Complete tournament information can be found at www.iesa.org. Click on the Golf link at the top of the IESA Web site home page. Also, the IESA Fanzone available on the IESA home page can provide additional information.

There will be no admission or parking charge at the tournament.

Should weather become a factor, the IESA website will contain up-to-date information regarding the completion of the tournament. Go to www.iesa.org for any changes to the schedule and for the final results which will be posted at the conclusion of the awards ceremony.

For more information, please contact the Golf Administrator Julie Cochran at 309-829-0114 or julie@iesa.org.