Gators Stellar in First Day of Championships

May 8, 2007

First Day Results

HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. – The Allegheny College women’s golf team shot a remarkable score of 341 in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Championships, hosted by Oglethorpe University at the Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort, on the El Campeon Course, in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida. The remarkable score, which betters any of the four rounds put up by the Gators a season ago on the same course, puts them in fifth place heading into the second day of competition.

Defending champion Methodist has a commanding lead on the field, after a first-round score of (303), with Gustavus Adolphus (322), DePauw (336) and Southwestern (340) each finishing ahead of the Gators, and St. Thomas (342), Wisconsin-Eau Claire (344), Middlebury (347), Williams (348), and Illinois Wesleyan (348) rounding out the top 10 behind the Blue and Gold.

The team was led by Alison Bruckner (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South), who carded a first-day score of 81 which puts her in a tie for 14th place overall. For the round, which started on hole 10 for the Gators, Bruckner had back-to-back-to-back birdies on her sixth, seventh and eighth holes of the day, and was +1 at the turn. Five pars, two bogeys, one double and another triple bogey dropped her to +7 on the front nine, giving her a +8 on the day. Her three birdies is tied for the second most in a round for the day, trailing only the four by the individual leader Charlotte Williams of Methodist who carded a one-over-par 74 on the day.

Lisa Coleman (Lakeview, N.Y./Frontier Central) and Lauren Torso (Zelienople, Pa./Seneca Valley) each carded an 86 on the opening round, tying for 34th individually in the field. Coleman was aided by a par-four eagle, the only eagle on the day for the field, on her seventh hole of the day, while reaching par on five more and double-bogeying three on the round. Torso had a more even round, picking up seven pars, including five on the back nine, while managing just two double bogeys.

Jaime Reints (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles East) was the fourth golfer for the Gators, shooting a first-round 88, which puts her in a tie for 47th overall. The sophomore struggled early in her round with three double bogeys and two bogeys, before settling down in the back nine, with just one double bogey, shooting seven over par for the back nine.

Rounding out the Gators on the national team is Kim Elam (Batavia, Ill./Batavia), who struggled in her first nine holes of championship competition, carding a front-nine total of 53, for a total of 16 over par before coming around in the back nine with four pars and a total of 47, giving her an even total of 100 for the round, still finishing inside of the top 100 golfers, placing in a tie for 96th.

Competition continues tomorrow afternoon for the Gators, who tee off from hole #1 starting with Elam’s group at 12:50 p.m. and following with Torso’s (1:00 p.m.), Coleman’s (1:10 p.m.), Reints’ (1:20 p.m.) and concluding with Bruckner’s at 1:30 p.m.

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