GOLF: Three Du Quoin golfers advance from Anna Regional

ANNA, IL - Three boys golfers from Du Quoin have qualified for the Class A Sectional Tournament after placing in the top ten individuals not on an advancing team from Tuesday's Anna Regional at Union County Country Club.

Christian Fellowship's Kolton Pavloff shot an 18-hole score of 85 for the Regional's ninth-best overall score and fourth-best amongst players not from third place Johnston City, runner-up Carterville or tournament champion Hamilton County.

"Basically, qualifying was the goal coming into today, so I'm happy," Pavloff said. "85 is not what I was looking for coming in. My first nine, the back side, I struck the ball well. I came around to the front side and just didn't drop any putts. I had eight birdie putts within twenty-five feet that I missed."

Joining Pavloff at Crab Orchard Golf Course on Monday will be Du Quoin High School seniors Jacob Fisher (88) and Bradon Woodside (92) - and a third Indian senior, Nolan Graham (94), missed the cut by just two strokes.

"Four years of work have paid off," Fisher said. "I didn't play my best, but I played good enough (to move on), so that's all that matters."

Cole McKenzie was Du Quoin's fourth player and shot 138. As a team, DHS was seventh of the twelve teams in Anna with a score of 412.

Fisher and Woodside became the first Du Quoin High School golfers to advance to a Sectional since Shawn Alongi and Travis Reckinger did it back in 2006.

"It does feel very special," Woodside said of the accomplishment. "It's a great feeling to represent Du Quoin High School and be the ones that have done this, it's just a great, great feeling."

"I put in a lot of hard work this summer and it's good to see that it's paid off. It was a tough round out there, I had a lot of putts, but it's good to see that the work has finally paid off."

Pavloff, an SIGA Junior Tour champion this summer, was playing in his first IHSA Regional tournament.

"Those summer tournaments definitely helped," Pavloff said. "For the first time being eligible for the postseason, I wanted to come out with a good showing. It wasn't as good as I wanted, but it was good enough to advance."

Hamilton County's score of 324 made them the runaway winner over Carterville (357), Johnston City (370) and the rest of the field. Carterville freshman Jacob Ecklund's round of 74 was the top score of the day.