By Brian Thomas and Neel Thakkar
Staff Writer and Associate Editor-in-Chief
On Friday and Saturday, Prospect sent off 3 boys golfers to compete at state in Bloomington  (girls results further down). Juniors Derek Leeney, Jimi Poulos, and senior Matt Maloney played to the best of their abilities despite the weather conditions.
Maloney said the conditions were really tough. “It was really cold and windy out there, and the course was extremely wet due to the rain in Bloomington,” said Maloney. “The weather really affected our play.”
Leeney shot an 81 and an 84 and Poulos shot an 80 and an 85. They both tied for 63rd in state. Maloney shot an 85 and a 90 and tied for 93rd in state.
Maloney said that he was “just glad to make it to state”, but he was disappointed that the team did not reach their goal they made for themselves at the beginning of the season.
“It was our goal to make it to state as a team, that’s what we really wanted to accomplish,” said Maloney. “But I guess having 3 individuals make it state isn’t so bad either.”
On the girls’ side, the Knights’ representative at the state tournament, senior Ellie Tixier, placed 43rd out of a field of 93 golfers.  She got off to a slow start on Friday, the first day of the tournament, shooting an 88, but managed to pick up her game on Saturday with an impressive score of 81. This gave her a combined score of 169, which was 24 shots higher than the score of senior Kris Yoo of Conant and junior Hayley Guyton of Kaneland, who tied for first place.
“It was about what I expected,” Tixier said of her performance.  Although she said she could have done better on Friday, she was proud of her play on Saturday.
“[Overall], it went really well,” she said.