Weather warrior

Crystal Lake Central's Riley Bauman watches his tee shot on the seventh hole during Tuesday's Class 2A regional at Prairie Isle in Prairie Grove. Bauman finished with the day's best score, 78, helping his team take first place. (Travis Haughton – thaughton@nwherald.com)

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PRAIRIE GROVE – Crystal Lake Central’s Riley Bauman wasn’t thrilled by his 6-over-par 78 on Tuesday, but he wasn’t displeased, either.

“I’m good with it,” Bauman said. “I’m not mad. I’m in-between. What’s the word? Neutral.”

The blustery conditions at Prairie Isle made Bauman’s round look even better. The Tigers’ senior was the only golfer to break 80 at the IHSA Class 2A Prairie Ridge Regional as he led Central to the team title with 326 strokes, five ahead of the host Wolves. Hampshire (352) took third and also advances to Monday’s Wheaton Academy Sectional at Pheasant Run in St. Charles.

“I was playing well on the front, then the conditions got worse on the back [nine],” said Bauman, a senior who won his first individual regional title. “I putted really well today, I had 26 putts. I wasn’t hitting the greens real well, but I got up and down and saved some pars.”

Central freshman Corban Murphy shot 80 to tie with three golfers for second place and help the Tigers grab the team trophy. Prairie Ridge’s Casey Schneider, Hampshire’s Jeff Cohn and Fenton’s Oliver Dobon also shot 80s.

“Corban showed a lot of maturity out there,” Tigers coach Mike Hermann said. “From a personal standpoint, I was very pleased with how our guys finished. The fact there’s not too many good scores shows how difficult it was out there.”

Only eight golfers shot lower than 85 for the day, with temperatures in the low 50s, a drizzling rain and occasionally gusting winds.

“I’m happy to get out with what I shot,” Schneider said. “My front nine went pretty solid, but the back nine got rough with the rain. The last four holes the wind was in our faces and I didn’t play my best. I think the scores would have been a lot lower if we’d played in different conditions.”

Schneider and his teammates took advantage of their first year in Class 2A by qualifying for the sectional tournament.

Hampshire’s Yoder, a senior who went to Class 2A state last season, said the Whip-Purs’ focus was on the team advancing Tuesday.

“Today, no one was thinking about individuals,” said Yoder, who was the Big Northern Conference runner-up last week. “We wanted to get there as a team, that was the ultimate goal. We were one spot away last year.”

Cohn led the Whips with his 80, and Yoder shot 81.

“[The weather] started out not as bad, but then there was a drizzle and the wind picked up intensely,” Yoder said. “It was a tough track to play today.”