Quinn, Broncos get in

A rough start could have finished Ryan Quinn.

The Barrington senior was on pace to shoot 90 as he made the turn in Monday's McHenry Class 3A boys golf sectional at Oak Grove Golf Course in Harvard.

But Quinn thought about the place he and his teammates wanted to be this weekend.

"I said to myself, 'I'm not going to give up on the team and finish strong and do whatever I can to help us get there,' " Quinn said.

Quinn delivered a 39 on the back nine to give the Broncos their fourth counting score with an 84. And that helped give them their seventh sectional title and first since 1996 by 1 shot with a 326.

"It's a big relief," Quinn said. "It's very tough competition and we knew we had to play well to advance here."

Class expansion allowed only two teams to advance to the state tourney at the Den at Fox Creek in Bloomington. And for the first time since 1975-76, Cary-Grove is headed to state as it topped perennial power Lake Forest on a fifth-score tiebreaker.

"You come to these things trying to advance to state," Barrington junior Ross Frankenberg said of his school's 18th trip and second in a row. "This is the frosting on top of the cake."

Frankenberg finished third with a 6-over-par 77 on the 7,021-yard course. Woodstock's Caleb Remington was the medalist with a 73 and Prairie Ridge's Tyler Benson was second with 75.

"You can't be upset with that, coming in third in a great field like this," Frankenberg said. "I had a lot of putts that could have killed us. Fortunately I made just enough to help us bring it home."

Jason Batliner had a round similar to Quinn as he recovered from a 44 on the front to finish with 81. Kyle Schweizer shot 84, Charlie Douglas an 87 and freshman Johnny McNulty a 93.

And the unseasonably warm and windy conditions also had two brief downpours on a course that had coaches and players comparing some pin placements to those of a putt-putt course.

"It was kind of hard to gauge what was going on," said Barrington coach Mike Kallenbach. "I'm really proud of the way the guys hung in there.

"They're used to shooting certain numbers … it was all mental today. They hung in there mentally."

Quinn was a prime example as he shot 76 in last week's regional at Oak Grove. Going even at the par-5 11th was a big spark.

"It's the toughest hole here and I hit almost three perfectly placed shots," Quinn said of his first par in 10 holes. "That's when I said, 'OK, let's get on a good roll here.'"

One the Broncos hope to continue after taking fifth in last year's Class AA tourney.

"We're all really excited to go back," Quinn said.

"A 326 to win a sectional is one of the highest I've ever seen," Frankenberg said of the highest in a big-school class since Quincy's 330 in the 2002 Alton AA sectional. "But 326 definitely is not bad at all considering the conditions."

Lake Forest had two 78s and a 79 but had to count one of its two 92s and also had a 94 after finishing third in AA the last two years and winning the title in 2004.

Cary-Grove got 80s from Brian Colbert and Matt Efflandt, an 83 from Tyler Bulterman, an 84 by Ryan Kwech and a tie-breaking 90 from Scott Brady.

"It really is quite a feat," said Cary-Grove coach Kelly Muzzy of the school's second state trip over a program that has made 21.