Steady Mikula wins Challenge Girls 13-15 bracket

    By Tim Cronin

    Jane Mikula will be an incoming freshman at Marist in the fall.
    She’ll be trying out for the RedHawks girls golf team with a trophy on her shelf.
    The 14-year-old Chicagoan grabbed the final trophy of Wednesday’s Illinois Golfer Challenge Junior Golf Championship, specifically the Virginia Van Wie Trophy, by scoring 35-over 107 to win the Girls 13-to-15 Division at Glenwoodie Golf Course in Glenwood.
    It wasn’t the lowest score for a Challenge winner, but it got the job done.
    To Mikula, the key was the start. Literally, the first swing in competition.
    “The first drive,” she said. “Starting off well helps.”
    With only two other competitors, she was able to keep tabs on Gianna Miritello and MacKenzie Zions, who also happen to be Marist-affiliated. Mikula beat Miritello by five strokes and Zions by seven.
    “Some of it was difficult,” Mikula said. “The back nine, I just had to stick with it.”
    She was able to negotiate Glenwoodie’s fabled finish after a quintuple-bogey 9 on the par-5 13th, three strokes ahead of Zions and four ahead of Miritello.
    Voila! A big trophy to signify her first win of the year following a camp for present and prospective Marist teammates and her regular Tuesday appearance in the Meadows of Blue Island Junior League.