Illinois Valley Times

The history that the Streator High School boys golf team made this season may be just a taste of the success to come.

Highlighted by the program's first regional title since the waning days of Jimmy Carter's presidency, the 2016 Bulldogs set a high standard for next year, which its young nucleus is ready to tackle in 2017

Indications that it was going to be a special year came right away, when Streator won the season-opening Bulldog Invite for the first time since 2010, head coach Beau Doty said. Along the way, the team had the program's first sub-160 score in a round since 2012 and won the Interstate 8 Conference Tournament.

But everything really came together at the Pontiac 2A Regional on Oct. 4.

The Bulldogs had a team score of 344, two strokes better than runner-up Joliet Catholic. That gave Streator its first regional crown since 1980. Sophomore Grant Mascal led the way individually for Streator with a score of 79, which was second place overall. Sophomore Cole Holloway was 10th with an 87, sophomore Camden Anderson-Pfalzgraf was 14th with an 88, and senior Adam Brown was 20th with a 90.

“It means a great deal,” Doty told the Illinois Valley Times about the regional crown.

The Bulldogs had come close before to that achievement, Doty said, especially in 2011, when they had a team score of 301 at the meet – “an unheard-of score,” Doty said – but a tough, deep field of competitors kept Streator from the title.

“We've been right there on the cusp for a while, and it was great to see our kids come through with it this year,” Doty, who has coached the team for eight seasons, said.

Streator went on to finish 10th as a team at the St. Rita Sectional. The Bulldogs fell short of qualifying for the state meet as a team, but Mascal shot an 80 to earn the right to advance as an individual – the first Bulldog to do so since 2011. He tied for 50th at the state meet, which was held Oct. 14-15 in Normal.

Mascal, who placed or tied for first at 11 of Streator's 17 team events this season and dropped his nine-hole scoring average by 4½ strokes, improved a lot over last season, Doty said, from his decision-making to understanding when to play it smart and when to take risks, to strategically plotting his way around the course. Much of that came from experience, Doty said, as Mascal competes throughout the state during the summer.

“That experience paid a lot of dividends for him,” Doty said.

The team, in general, lives on the golf course, Doty said, making for a tight-knit group in which the members pushed each other. Next season, the Bulldogs will be without seniors Brown, who was all-conference this season, and Todd Anderson, a four-year player who provided leadership and was a sectional qualifier in 2015.

Still, the team will have the sophomore trio of Mascal, Holloway – who was the medalist at the conference meet – and Anderson-Pfalzgraf, as well as a host of others of varying classes who will contribute.

“We feel good about, still, our depth and our ability to crank out four scores on a given night,” Doty said.