One week later, St. Charles North junior Alex Lilly felt like he had a handle on the Bartlett Hills Golf Club.

“It definitely helped with course management and knowing where mistakes can’t happen,” Lilly said. “And trying to prevent that.”

Lilly had hoped his experience at last week’s DuKane Conference Meet would help playing on the same course in the Class 3A South Elgin Regional.

It definitely did as Lilly learned his lesson well, shooting a 76 on Monday. That was two strokes better than his conference output, leading the North Stars to a team score of 322.

St. Charles North ended up winning its first regional title since 2012 and the third in program history. Lilly lost a playoff to Geneva’s Nathan Dalton for medalist honors.

“I just wanted to come out and play well for the team and hopefully get our team to sectionals,” Lilly said. “We accomplished that. It feels pretty good.”

Lilly has played his best golf of the season in the past week, something North Stars coach Justin Moriarty hopes will continue in Monday’s Glenbard West Sectional at Village Links in Glen Ellyn.

“The playoff didn’t end how he wanted it, but I’m sure he would be the first to tell you that having the team accomplishment over the individual accomplishment is paramount,” Moriarty said.

St. Charles North shaved nine strokes off its conference score to edge Geneva by a stroke for the regional title. St. Charles East was the third advancing team, shooting a 333.

“I couldn’t be happier for our kids that put a lot of time and effort into this,” Moriarty said. “I’m just very excited for our program in general. We’re junior heavy, so these guys will have the experience for next year. That’s another positive for us.”

John White, a senior, fired a 79 out of the fourth spot in the lineup for the North Stars. Juniors Cole Miller (83) and Evan Suyak (84) rounded out their card.

St. Charles East advanced as a team to the sectional for the 17th straight season, despite rough days from its top two golfers.

Seniors Blake Connelly and David Griggs each shot an 82 to bail out the Saints and get them into the sectional field.

“When your one and two go 85 and 86, the team picked us up, simple as that,” St. Charles East coach John Stock said. “The course played tough, it was wet, played long, no roll.

“The goal is to move on. It would be nice to win, but all you really want is to be there on sectional Monday and say, all right, we have a shot.”

South Elgin senior Dilan Patel shot a 78 to lead the group of 10 individual qualifiers. It’s the second straight sectional trip for Patel, who works at Bartlett Hills.

Teammates Nick Zaimins and Jacobs Zipparro also advanced, as did Bartlett’s Clark Lewis.

“I’ve played this course 100 times,” Patel said. “I grew up on this course. I know it like the back of my hand. It was exciting seeing this (course) as the host. I knew it was a great opportunity to get a couple guys out.”

Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.