The fall boys golf season is upon us with six local teams ready to compete on the links in 2022! This preview is sponsored by BMO Harris Bank.
Benet Academy Boys Golf
We begin with the Benet Academy Redwings who enter this season fresh off a regional championship last fall. Benet will lose 2022 graduate Jack Ditrani who was the medalist at the West Chicago regional and finished 35th as an individual at State. Ryan Farago, Ryan Treacy and Timothy Baer have graduated as well. The Wings do return a talented Sophomore in Charlie Davenport, who shot the team’s lowest score during this year’s tryouts. Davenport is recently coming off two wins this summer. The first coming at Cress Creek Country Club in July and then another victory in early August at Rich Harvest Farms. Ryan Dannegar is another key varsity returner, back for his senior season.
Waubonsie Valley Boys Golf
After winning their fourth DVC championship in the past five years, the Waubonsie Valley Warriors are once again poised for a run at the title. The Warriors picked up just two regular season wins last year while also finishing 2nd at the Aurora City Tournament and 6th out of 27 teams at the Providence Catholic Invitational. WV played its best golf to end the season with the DVC tournament win and third place at regionals. They bring back perhaps one of the best high school golfers in the state in junior Salil Khanduja. Khanduja won a regional title and finished 12th at the IHSA state finals last fall. Also returning to the team that finished 7th at sectionals are fellow junior’s Christopher Wagner and Arjun Iyengar. The lone senior varsity returnee this season is Charlie Liu.
Neuqua Valley Boys Golf
Over at Neuqua Valley, the Wildcats will try to advance to the the state finals as a team for a second straight season. En route to the state meet, Neuqua picked up eight wins in a couple different styles of competition, including a team regional championship. The Wildcats will be without their top three scores from their sectional third place finish, Alec Cross, Noah Martin and Mason Dentzman, but do return a couple of experienced golfers. Junior Parth Vora and Senior Calvin Stegar are among those that return to a team that fell just short of a DVC championship in 2021.
Metea Valley Boys Golf
The Mustangs of Metea Valley come into the 2022 season after one of the best seasons in program history after sending a school record three golfers to State last fall. However, they will be without two of those qualifiers in graduates Aman Shah and Arjun Vyas, as well as graduates Johnny Kerns and Elijah Oakes who both were part of the school’s McGonagle and Aurora City Championships. Returning for Metea are Junior’s Kyle Bucher, who qualified for state in 2021 and Nick Schroeder, also returning is Senior Patrick McGrath. Metea will look for revenge in the DVC this season as they finished the conference regular season with a perfect 5-0 record but fell short at the conference tournament and placed fourth.
Naperville Central Boys Golf
Naperville Central will be without four key contributors this fall from the boys golf team that have graduated from NCHS, including veterans Harvey Wang and Andrew Maul. There might be some gaps to fill, but the Redhawks do return talented golfers in juniors Joey Cerney and Matthew Sims as well as senior Dan Rabinovich. All three of them competed on the Redhawks sectional qualifying team last season. Head coach Barry Baldwin has plenty of experience in reloading a roster and building off a solid postseason run.
“I think you definitely try to, especially with three players returning that are younger, that have been through that process, I think that helps. Now you’re looking for that fourth score and hopefully someone steps up and takes that role, said Central head coach Barry Baldwin.”
Some names to keep an eye out to round out the Redhawks Roster include Kyle Closset, Eric Lenz and James Cavanagh.
Naperville North Boys Golf
Naperville North enters the fall boys golf with aspirations to make it to the sectional round for the first time as a team since 2019. Coming off a fourth place finish in the DVC, the Huskies will be without graduate Jackson Ciganek, who was the lone member of the squad to compete in sectionals last year. Returning for North are the likes of Zach Wu, David Richardson and Peter Christiansen, hoping to push the blue and orange to the top of the conference. Naperville North will have a couple of home quad meets and duals this season, including their Scramble tournament, which will be played at the end of August at Cress Creek Country Club.
Check out the other previews here!
