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| Recent Results: MIAC Championships SMU men 9h out of 10 teams / Details Winona State Invitational SMU women 4h out of 4 teams / Details |
| Upcoming Events: Sat.-Mon., Oct. 7-9: SMU men at Twin Cities Classic, Becker, Minn. Sat.-Mon, Oct. 7-9: SMU women at MIAC Championships, Coon Rapids, Minn. |
SMU women post solid effort in final tune-up for MIAC
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Who's Hot?
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Jesse
Polk 80-79-76—235 at MIAC |
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Kate
O'Connor 82-92-86—260 at WSU Invite |
No rain.
No wind.
No bitter cold.
All-in-all, weather conditions were picture-perfect for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships.
Picture-perfect, however, wasn't the way coach Tom Farren would describe his team's performance.
Playing in shirtsleeves for the first time this fall, the Cardinals struggled to a season-worst 326 team score in Friday's opening round of the three-day conference tournament at Bunker Hills Golf Course.
"I don't know what to say, everything about the day was perfect — except the way we played," said Farren, whose team managed just two rounds in the 70s — a 78 by Tony Hynes (Lino Lakes, Minn.) and a 79 by Josh Wendel (Rosemount, Minn.). "We just did not play well at all, plain and simple."
Fortunately for the Cardinals, the MIAC was a three-day event, giving SMU two days to improve on that disappointing start.
Unfortunately, it was more of the same in Day 2 — only worse — as the Cardinals went from a 326 first-day score to a 330 second-day effort, as SMU remained ninth in the 10-team tournament.
"We definitely picked the wrong time to have our games go in the tank," said Farren, who got only one second-day score in the 70s — a 79 by Jesse Polk (Hastings, Minn.) — while Hynes ballooned to an 84 and Wendel struggled to an 85. "It's just been a struggle all the way around."
SMU did manage to put it all together in Monday's final round, getting a 76 from Polk, a 77 from Wendel and a 78 from Rob Klein (Lake Bluff, Ill.) en route to a 312, but it was too little, too late as SMU remained ninth in the 10-team field.
Polk finished with the tournament with a team-best 235 (80-79-76), while Wendel was six shots back at 241 (79-85-77). Hynes chipped in a 243 (78-84-81). followed by Scott Savage (Mahtomedi, Minn. / 89-82-80—251) and Klein (90-85-78—253).
"We played a lot better (on Monday), but we needed three days like that, not just one," said Farren, whose team finished with a 967 team total. "I told the guys afterwards that I was proud of them for not packing it in after those first two rounds. It was nice to end the tournament on a good note — it's just too bad we couldn't have done that from the get-go."
AFTER TWO WEEKS OFF, THE SMU WOMEN'S golf team made up for lost time at the Winona State University Invitational.
Unlike most collegiate tournaments, the WSU Invitational was a 54-hole event, meaning the Cardinals were forced to play 36 holes last Saturday, and another 18 on Sunday.
Two rounds in one day? No problem.
In fact, for four of the Cardinals' five golfers, Saturday's second round was better than the first — as SMU posted a 349 total, the third-lowest 18-hole round in school history.
And Sunday's final round wasn't too bad, either, as SMU put together a 352, the fourth-lowest 18-hole round ever, as SMU finished the 54-hole event with a 1,071 total to place fourth.
"I thought we played pretty well," said SMU coach Shawn Stimmel. "The ladies seemed to adust (to playing 36 holes in one day) all right – it's tough to do, but we seemed to get stronger as the day went on.
"This was a good tune-up for us — hopefully we can get our scores down just a bit next week (at the MIAC Championships)."
Kate O'Connor (Orland Park, Ill.) led the way for the Cardinals, shooting rounds of 82-92-86—260 to finish 15th overall. Caty Beel (Tucson, Ariz.) chipped in a 267 (91-85-91), followed by Angie Christiansen (West Salem, Wis. / 98-85-86—269), Val Meschke (Pine River, Minn. / 99-87-91—277) and Katelyn Rizzi (Austin, Minn. / 99-93-89—281).