The Statesmen women’s golf squad raised its first hardware of the year by dominating the Simpson Invitational Wednesday.
The Statesmen won title #1 of the year with a score of 316 at the par-71 Indianola Country Club. It was a 1-2 finish for the navy and gold as the varsity reserve group was second at 332; the ‘Blue’ team was a full 20 strokes ahead of third-place Grand View.
GVU did have the top individual as Maria Mantilla posted a 74.
Miranda Keeler (Plattsmouth, Neb., Communications) was only two strokes off the top spot, though, with a second-place 76, while Demi Coertze (Sr., Johannesburg, South Africa, Digital Communication) was third out of 44 players at 78.
Natalie Booton (Sr., Mount Pleasant, Elementary Education) placed fourth at 80 and Courtney Cunningham (Jr., Muskogee, Okla., Computer Science) tied for fifth at 82. Jodi Saito (Jr., Mililani, Hawaii, Education) wrapped up the varsity scoring by tying for ninth at 84.
Jing Yang (Sr., Woodland Hills, Calif., Biology) led the Blue team in a tie for fifth at 82. Elise Warne (Fr., North Balwyn, Australia, Exercise Science) and Brooke Fletcher (So., Atlantic, Iowa, Business Management) then carded scores of 84 to tie for ninth. Alyssa Kerry (Fr., Bend, Ore., Communications), who tied for 13th (87), and Megan Rhoads (Fr., Schertz, Texas, Psychology), who finished 17th (91), also played for the second crew.
Nearly the entire roster was on the course Wednesday with the ‘Gold’ team taking fourth at 364. Jordan Postma (So., Marion, Iowa, Biology) headed the way with an 87 to tie for 13th. Bailey Rimes (Fr., Niceville, Fla., Public Accounting) was 15th with an 89 and Alexi Rule (Jr., Idaho Falls, Idaho, Elementary Education) was also in the top 20 in 16th at 90. Sofie Lund (Fr., Herning, Denmark, Psychology) (24th, 98) and Aramina Flores (So., Corpus Christi, Texas, History/Government) (36th, 118) also competed at the Invitational.
“We went into today knowing we should have a result like this and our players battled through some adversity to do so,” Head Coach Nik Rule said. “We are pleased with the 1-2 finish, but still have some room to improve on the maturity side of the game, which we talked about. We are looking forward to seeing how our players continue to elevate their game and improve upon that aspect this weekend.”
Next Up: William Penn travels to Grinnell Sunday to compete in the Grinnell Invitational. Action will be held at Grinnell Country Club.
