SMU Golf

WAVERLY, Iowa — Shawn Stimmel got a glimpse of what his Saint Mary's University women's golf team could accomplish during their season-opening performance at the UW-Eau Claire Invitational, where the Cardinals' posted the second-best 18-hole round in school history.

Saturday afternoon, the Cardinals gave Stimmel an even more impressive glimpse, as SMU posted a school-record score of 346 during the opening round of the Wartburg Invitational.

Unfortunately for the Cardinals, Mother Nature decided to rain on SMU's record-setting parade, as a constant downpour and temperatures in the mid-50s caused Sunday's second round to be postponed.

"It was good to see us come out and put four consistent rounds together," said Stimmel, who had four players shoot first-round scores in the 80s, led by Kate O'Connor's (Orland Park, Ill.) 82 en route to their eighth-place finish. "It's nice to have the luxury of having to throw out a pretty good score. When you can bunch a lot of good numbers together like we did, that's encouraging."

Along with O'Connor's opening-round 82, the Cardinals also got an 87 from Katelyn Rizzi (Austin, Minn.), an 88 from Caty Beel (Tucson, Ariz.) and an 89 from Angie Christiansen (West Salem, Wis.). Val Mescke's (Pine River, Minn.) 92 rounded out the Cardinals' first-round performance.

"We were really looking forward to (Sunday's) round — we all felt like we could put up some pretty good numbers," Stimmel said, whose Cardinals did get nine holes in on Sunday, with O'Connor's 46 the low round. "But the rain and the cold made it miserable out there."