Cara Basso was one of Denise St. Pierre’s prize recruits
when the Penn State coach scooped up three of Pennsylvania’s top scholastic
players from the Class of 2015.
Basso had won the PIAA Class AA title as a sophomore at
Villa Maria Academy in 2012. I talked to her after that round and wrote a story
about her state championship for her local paper, the Daily Local News of West
Chester.
This spring Basso has slowly become the top player on a Penn
State team that entered this weekend’s
Big Ten Championship at TPC River’s Bend in Maineville, Ohio at No. 69
in the latest Golfstat rankings. The
Nittany Lions improved by 15 shots over their opening round of 309 with a 6-over
294 Saturday and a big reason for that was Basso’s sparkling 5-under-par 67
over the 6,357-yard, par-72 TPC River’s Bend layout.
Still, it seems unlikely that the Nittany Lions, who are
tied for 12th with Minnesota in a very competitive Big Ten field at 603,
will receive a bid to the NCAA regionals. But for Basso, this spring might be a
bit of a breakthrough.
Basso, who opened with a 3-over 75, surged up the
leaderboard as she matched the low round of the day. It wasn’t quite the
9-under 63 torching that Michigan State’s Sarah Burnham laid on TPC River’s
Bend in the second round a year ago on her way to a runnerup finish, but it was
pretty strong.
It moved Basso into a tied for seventh at 2-under 142, eight
shots out of the lead held by Ohio State’s Jaclyn Lee, a junior from Canada,
and just three shots behind the trio tied for second, five shots behind Lee at
5-under 139.
Basso started on No. 10 Saturday and promptly birdied three
of her first four holes. She overpowered the par-5 18th hole for an
eagle to cap a sizzling back nine of 5-under 31. She cooled off with two
birdies against two bogeys on the front nine, but the 67 was a career low.
This came on a day when somebody apparently forgot to tell a
young Maryland team, ranked 73rd, that it has no business shooting
an 8-under 280 and taking a one-shot lead over defending champion Michigan
State, at No. 12 the highest-ranked team in the field.
The Terps opened with a solid even-par 288 Friday and their
remarkable round Saturday left them at 8-under 568.
Michigan State was a surprise when it beat some of the Big
Ten’s traditional powers to claim the team title a year ago. The Spartans
aren’t sneaking up on anybody this spring. They added a 2-under 286 to the
5-under 283 that gave them the opening-round lead for a 7-under 569 total.
No. 45 Ohio State, with a red-hot Lee leading the way, is
another two shots behind Michigan State in third at 5-under 571 after adding a
6-under 282 to its opening-round 289.
No. 22 Purdue posted a solid 3-under 285 Saturday after
opening up with a 293 and is alone in fourth at 2-over 578, seven shots behind
the Buckeyes. No. 26 Illinois is another four shots behind the Boilermakers in fifth
at 6-over 582 after a 2-over 290.
No. 13 Northwestern was still playing on the final day of
the 2016-’17 college golf season, the Wildcats falling to Arizona State in the
Final Match of the NCAA Championship at Rich Harvest Farms. They posted rounds
of 293 and 292 and are biding their time in sixth at 9-over 585, three shots
behind the Fighting Illini, their in-state rival.
Maryland was led by Xiaolin Tian, a sophomore from Mongolia
who is in the group tied for second at 5-under 139. Tian matched the low round
of the day with a 5-under 67 after opening with an even-par 72.
Ludovica Farina, a junior from Italy, and Virunpat Olankitkunchai,
a freshman from Thailand, are in the group tied for ninth at 1-under 143.
Farina added an even-par 72 to her opening-round 71 while Olankitkunchai had
the Terps’ second-best score of the day, a 3-under 69, after opening up with a
74. Laura Van Respaille, a freshman from France, is tied for 13th at
144 after a pair of even-par 72s.
Ludovica Scandroglio, a junior from Italy, is among the
group tied for 30th at 3-over 147 after adding a 2-over 74 to an
opening-round 73. The Big Ten allows teams of six women for its championship
and Charlotte Lafourcade, another freshman from France, rounded out the
Maryland contingent as she is in the group tied for 41st at 150 after improving
two shots on her opening-round 76 with a 2-over 74.
You wouldn’t have liked Maryland’s chances for an NCAA
regional berth coming into the Big Ten Championship, but this effort is going
to be tough to ignore. And if the Terps hold on and win the title, they will be
impossible to ignore because they will be an automatic qualifier to the NCAA
Championship field.
Lee fired an opening round of 6-under 66 Friday and backed
it up with a 4-under 68 to open up a five-shot lead over the rest of the field
with her 10-under 134 total.
Her Ohio State teammate, Rio Wantanabe, a redshirt senior
from Japan, joined Penn State’s Basso and Maryland’s Tian in firing a 6-under
67 which, combined with an opening-round 72 left her in the group tied for
second at 5-under 139.
The third member of the trio at 139 is Michigan State’s Allyson
Geer, a sophomore from Brighton, Mich. who had opened with a 5-under 67 Friday
before backing off a little with an even-par 72.
Geer’s teammate, Burnham, a senior from Maple Grove, Minn.
and the author of that brilliant 9-under 63 in the second round at TPC River’s
Bend a year ago, is tied for fifth at 3-under 141. Burnham, never afraid to
take it low, carded a 3-under 69 Saturday after matching par with a 72 in
Friday’s opening round.
Burnham was joined at that figure by Illinois’ Bing
Singhsumalee, a junior from Naperville, Ill. who added a 2-under 70 to her
opening-round 71.
Joining Penn State’s Basso at 2-under 142 and tied for
seventh was Purdue’s Ida Ayu Indira Melati Putri, a junior from Indonesia who
carded a second consecutive 1-under 71.
Beside Basso, it’s been a couple of disappointing days for
the rest of the Penn State contingent. Junior Lauren Waller, the 2014 PIAA
Class AAA runnerup as a senior at Canon-McMillan, is in the group tied for 36th
at 5-over 149 after steady rounds of 75 and 74.
Kamerine Taylor, a junior from Dublin, Ohio, added a 78 to
her opening-round 79 and is in the group tied for 64th at 157.
Sophomore Madelein Herr, the 2015 District One Class AAA champion as a senior
at Council Rock North, and sophomore Megan McLean, a Voorhees High product,
both landed in the group tied for 69th at 159. Herr bounced back
from an opening-round 83 with a 76 while McLean added a 79 to her opening-round
80.
Junior Jackie Rogowicz, a two-time District One champion at
Pennsbury, was another shot behind Herr and McLean in the group tied for 73rd
at 160. Like Herr, Rogowicz struggled in the opening round with an 83 before
bouncing back with a 77 that was the fourth counter for the Nittany Lions.
No comments:
Post a Comment