Kan finishes tied for ninth, Purdue takes third at Big Ten tourney

   With their two freshmen leading the way, Marta Martin of Spain and Linn Andersson, one of three Swedes on the roster, Purdue fell back a spot in the final standings, finishing third as the Big Ten Tournament wrapped up Sunday at The Fort Golf Course in Indianapolis.

   In her final appearance at the Big Ten tourney, senior Aurora Kan, the 2010 PIAA champion as a senior at Chichester, struggled a little with a 75, but still finished in a tie for ninth at 2-over 218.       

   Martin, who has emerged as the Boilermakers’ best player this spring, had a final-round 73 to end up at 1-over 217 and finish in a tie for fifth in the individual chase.

   Purdue flashed the kind of ability it possesses in the middle round Saturday as Swedish junior Anna Appert Lund fired a 3-under 69, Kan posted a flawless three-birdie, one-bogey 2-under 70, Swedish senior Johanna Tillstrom carded a 1-under 71, and Martin, Andersson and sophomore August Kim all posted 75s. It added up to a sparkling 285 as the Boilermakers creeped up to second in the team standings, just five shots behind Ohio St.

   It was fourth-best team round of the tournament as Ohio St. opened with a 281 and Northwestern opened with a 284 and then added another 284 in the final round that enabled the Wildcats to catch the Buckeyes for a share of the team title at 1-under 863. Purdue sandwiched rounds of 293 and 294 around that 285 to finish third at 872, nine shots back of the co-champions.

   Northwestern had a second-round 295 in between those two rounds of 284 while Ohio St. cooled off a little from that opening-round 281 with rounds of 292 and 290.

   Andersson’s final-round 73 matched Martin for Purdue’s low round of the day Sunday. It was also the rookie’s lowest career round and gave her a career-best 54-hole total of 226. That left her in a tie for 32^nd at 226.

   The other two final-round counters were Lund, who had a 74 for a solid 7-over 223 total that left her in a tie for 21st^th, and Kim, who also had a 74 to match Andersson’s 226 total in that tie for 32^nd. Kan and Tillstrom both had 75s. Tillstrom’s 75 gave her a solid 4-over 220 total that left her in a tie for 13^th.

   So that gave Purdue four finishers in the top 21 and six in the top 32.

   Northwestern’s Sarah Cho, a freshman from San Diego, cruised to the individual title with rounds of 72, 70 and 71 for a 3-under 213 total, five shots clear of Maryland’s Julie Vongphoumy (73-68-73), a senior from Providence, R.I., and Ohio St.’s Katja Pogacar (69-73-72), a sophomore from Slovenia.

In addition to that final-round 71 from Cho, the Wildcats got a 71 from Suchaya Tangkamolprasert, a junior from Thailand, and a 72 from  Hannah Kim, a freshman from Chula Vista, Calif. in forging that 284 that enabled them to catch Ohio St.

   It was a disappointing weekend for Denise St. Pierre’s Penn State team as the Nittany Lions finished 12^th with rounds of 303, 305 and 304 for a 912 total. The Nittany Lions were led by Grace Chung, a junior from Ontario who had rounds of 73, 75 and 74 to finish in a tie for 18^th at 222. Senior Ellen Ceresko, the reigning two-time Pennsylvania Women’s Amateur champion and a rival of Kan’s in high school and in Pennsylvania amateur circles, wrapped up her career at Penn State in a tie for 72^nd at 239.

   St. Pierre is getting a major infusion of talent from District One in the next two years with Jackie Rogowicz, a two-time District One champion and two-time PIAA runnerup from Pennsbury, and Cara Basso, a PIAA Class AA champion as a sophomore at Villa Maria, arriving next fall and Council Rock North standout Madelein Herr the following year.

   The destination for the NCAA regionals for Kan and her Boilermakers will be revealed Monday. I’ve never been much of a fan of rankings because I think they are often made by people won don’t really know the teams, so it’s not that surprising that Purdue never got inside the top 30 in the rankings, despite some really nice results this spring.

   The Boilermakers are going to be a dangerous team in the regionals, no matter where they go. They have a nice mix of talent and experience. That middle round at the Big Ten Tournament was hardly a fluke and was accomplished with probably their two most talented players, Martin and Kim, posting 75s.

   Speaking of the Big 10 and former PIAA champions, former Ohio St. standout Rachel Rohanna, who won the PIAA title as a junior at Waynesburg in 2007, was a winner Sunday on the Symetra Tour, the LPGA’s developmental circuit.

   Kan was a  freshman at Chichester in 2007 and she was in the hunt following the opening round of the PIAA Tournament at the Heritage Hills Golf Resort, but Rohanna blew the field away, Kan settling for a tie for fifth. Kan would finish no worse than second at Heritage Hills the next three years.

   Rohanna carded a 2-over 74 in windy conditions at Sara Bay in Sarasota, Fla. Sunday to win the Guardian Retirement Championship event by two shots with a 5-under 211 total. Rohanna earned $16,500 to jump from 16^th to fourth on the Symetra money list. The top 10 on the final Symetra Tour money list automatically graduate to the LPGA Tour.

   Among the five players who finished tie for second behind Rohanna was Canadian Maude-Aimee Leblanc, a member of Purdue’s 2010 NCAA championship team.