Western senior Allison Gillete practices at the Bellingham Golf and Country Club Thursday afternoon. Gillete is one of five golfers headed to the NCAA Division II National Championships next week in Houston, Texas. photo by Kennedy White THE WESTERN FRONT
With temperatures rising into the 90s, the Western women’s golf team beat the heat to place second Wednesday at the Women’s Western Super Regional in Phoenix, Ariz.
At the same time, the women’s team picked up a spot to play at the NCAA Division II National Championships.
Western finished with a combined 50-over par score of 914, only four strokes behind first place. Western sophomore Breanna Carmichael and junior Kaitlin Parker finished in a tie for fifth place in individual play.
“Our goal at regionals was to get to the finals, and we are going,” head coach Bo Stephan said.
The team had several problems on the first day after shooting a 31-over par. This wasn’t a large setback, as the team was still only seven strokes behind first place.
On Tuesday, the team came back strong and shot a 297 overall, which put them into first place by three strokes over last year’s winner Tarleton State University.
However, even though Parker shot a two-under par Wednesday and Western had a similarly strong round shooting a 298 overall, Tarleton State fought back with a 291, earning first place for the second year in a row.
Parker, who finished 11-over par on the first day, came back with a combined one-under the last two days to help Western finish in second. Parker also earned fifth place with Carmichael. Both shot an overall 10-over par throughout the tournament.
Western senior Allison Gillete also improved from her first two days by shooting one-under par on the final day. This in contrast to the 14-over par Gillete shot two days earlier, which contributed to her 19-over par score at the end of the tournament.
Western senior Catherine Kim finished the tournament at 16-over par with a double-bogey during the tournament. Sophomore Lianne Matkin finished the competition at 24-over par.
“You’re always going in as a team, but it’s how you play individually to help your team that matters,” Carmichael said.
Stephan said he was not just happy with the team’s second-place finish but with how good the team is looking individually going into the national tournament.
“It’s a team sport before an individual sport, and now that we are going to finals, it’s just icing on the cake,” Stephan said.
Western earned a spot at the national championship by placing in one of the top two spots at the tournament. Only the top two are invited from the regional.
The Western women will now prepare themselves for the National Championships May 13-16 in Houston, Texas, at the Memorial Park Golf Course.
The team will continue what they have been doing all year, Stephan said.
“We only have two days to prepare, so we’ll be practicing as much as we can,” Parker said.
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