Batavia nudges past Geneva on tiebreaker

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GENEVA -- Sometimes in sports, you just wish that there could be a little bit more.

Today at Mill Creek Golf Club, high school boys golf fans will get just that with Batavia and Geneva.

The two teams tied atop the leader board at the 16-team Geneva Invitational Wednesday with five-man scores of 373. Batavia walked away with the trophy on the sixth-score tiebreaker. But the two squads will pick up the action again today at Mill Creek with a Western Sun Conference dual meet against one another.

"We'll see tomorrow (if we have an advantage)," Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker said. "If you want to offer me one of the two, I'll take tomorrow. Conference match is always kind of what you want. We're young and I don't know if we believed we could hang with them before today."

Batavia received a pair of 71s to help its score along, from No. 1 golfer Tim Scofield and No. 3 golfer Colin Huber. Huber's 71 was noteworthy in that he sunk a hole-in-one on the par-three sixth hole. Geneva coach Bill Koehn said it was the first hole in one ever achieved in any tournament he has hosted at Mill Creek.

"Never even close," Huber said when asked if he'd ever had a hole-in-one before. "I hit an eight iron (from 159). It started at the middle of the green. There's a mound in the middle and it kind of kicked left. From that point, I lost the ball. I didn't know where it went, but it turned out it was in the hole."

Scofield lamented the fact he had four birdies on the back nine, but could only manage an even-par 71 when it was all said and done. But team-wise, when senior Shawn Steurer came in with a 73, the team breathed a sigh of relief, knowing they had the tournament won.

"It's really exciting, great win," Scofield said. "We weren't sure how our lower guys would play, and they've improved. I'm really happy about that."

Braden Dalton (72) and Braden Thompson (73) paced the Vikings' second-place effort. But Koehn was more pleased that a rivalry that had been getting heated in recent years has calmed down to the point where players on both sides are friendly and the matches are close and competitive.

"The Ryder Cup thing we did at the start of the year brought our teams closer," Koehn said. "Then to tie with these guys through five scores, so they broke the tie, I don't care. It's just great competition. This is just preparation for what is down the road. It's a lot of fun. I'm just happy that they have to put a blue-and-white trophy in their trophy case."

Marmion took third at the event, three strokes behind Batavia and Geneva with a 376. Leading the way was senior Tim Johnson with a 70, tied with Anthony Burdi of Bartlett for the lowest score of the tournament. Burdi took medalist honors on a tiebreaker.

It was a welcomed round for Johnson, who had been struggling. He did not even play Monday and shot in the No. 6 hole Wednesday.

"It's kind of a wake-up call," Johnson said. "We had a really good team last year and I was fourth. This year, I'm struggling and that is kind of disappointing, so it was really nice to shoot a low score. It was pretty exciting, considering how I've been playing."

Led by a 72 from senior Kurtis Luedtke, West Aurora finished with a 400. Geneva's second entry, to fill out the field with Glenbard South withdrawing due to having its first day of school, shot a 412, paced by Jeremy D'Amico's 79. And Kaneland shot a 417, led by a pair of 82s from Tyler Hochsprung and Jeff Smith.

Golf: Geneva Invitational