North Cook News

The calendar says it is still 2016, but two Oakton Community College (OCC) men's freshmen golfers already have May 2017 on their mind.

At the Region IV meet Oct. 7-8 at LaSalle and Oglesby, according to region4sports.com, the Owls' Stephen Bukielski finished third with a score of 225 in three rounds, while Chris Blaha finished eighth at 231. Those finishes qualified the two freshmen for the 2017 National Junior College Athletic Association Division II Men’s Golf Championship, which will be held May 23-26 in Mesa, Arizona, Oakton said in a statement.

The top 15 individual placers automatically qualified for the national meet.

OCC Head Coach Louis Walker told the North Cook News about how Bukielski and Blaha compare to baseball players in their playing styles and personas.

Walker compared Bukielski to a Greg Maddux-type pitcher, being someone who's not an overpowering player, but consistently succeeds on the finer aspects of the game – short game, putting and the like. Blaha, on the other hand, is “like a cleanup hitter with finesse,” like former San Francisco and St. Louis first baseman Jack Clark – someone who can power through a situation, as well as “get a seeing-eye single.”

However, there was a trait they had in common this season.

“If I had to pick a trait between the both of them, they both were consistent,” Walker said. “They both brought different things to the table – Stephen with his drive and his focus, and Chris with making the big shot, making the big putt, having a really good round when we needed a round to hang our hats on to come back and finish good.”

As a team, Oakton finished fourth at the Region IV meet with a 54-hole score of 948. Black Hawk College was first in the meet at 907.

The achievements of Bukielski and Blaha were not the only ones earned by the Owls this season, as they were among three Oakton men's golf-team members who earned All-Illinois Skyway Conference honors as the team finished runner-up in the standings, according to IllinoisSkyway.org.

Bukielski was third in the conference with a stroke average of 78 per nine holes. Anthony Corleone was ninth with an average of 81, and Blaha was 10th with a 81.25 average. Waubonsee's Benjamin Melms was the league medalist with a 75.25 stroke average.

As a team, the Owls were second with a score of 1,634 for 15 points in league play. Waubonsee was first with a score of 1,578 and 18 points.

The consistency that Walker said Bukielski and Blaha displayed this year also was a trait of the team in general. Walker said his team did “extremely well” this season, especially given that the squad was made up of one sophomore and four freshmen.

“We were solid all year from the beginning to the end,” Walker said. “We were always there with the bigger competitive schools. We were always there.”

Now, with the end of the fall season, Walker said academics become the players' focus to maintain eligibility for the spring season.

“Oakton Community College is one of the better community colleges to go to and higher academic community colleges to go to,” Walker said. “They have to do it in academics first to make sure they stay eligible, and that's the biggest concentration right now – to maintain their grades.”

Then the Owls will start back up in March with some invitationals, weather permitting, Walker said.