Delaware opens spring campaign by finishing in a tie for fifth in Reynolds Lake Oconee Invitational

 

   It’s been a while since I checked in on the Delaware women’s team and there’s been a lot going on in Newark.

   Patty Post got the women’s program off the ground before becoming the director of golf programs, overseeing both the men’s and women’s teams. Post got a five-year extension last summer, a validation of the tremendous job she is doing.

   In November, it was announced that Delaware was going to join Conference USA beginning in the summer of 2025. It is mostly a football move with the Blue Hens moving up from the Football Championship Division (FCS) – I kind of liked the much less complicated Division I-AA designation back in the day – to the Football Bowl Division (FBS) or what used to be known simply as Division I.

   While the Coastal Athletic Association, known as the Colonial Athletic Association and the CAA either way, is still Division I for golf, the competition might be a little stiffer in golf in Conference USA.

   Delaware was the runnerup in last spring’s CAA Championship and will have two more shots to capture the conference title and earn the CAA’s automatic berth in an NCAA regional.

   Delaware opened the spring portion of its 2023-2024 season in the Reynolds Lake Oconee Invitational at the Great Waters Golf Course in Greensboro, Ga. over the weekend.

   Host Mercer dominated the proceedings, winning by a whopping 26 shots with Mikayla Dubnik, a junior from Murrayville, Ga., and Camilla Jarvela, a senior from Finland, finishing 1-2, respectively, in the individual standings.

   Delaware finished in a tie for fifth place with Boston College, out of the Atlantic Coast Conference, each landing on 42-over 906.

   The Blue Hens opened with an 8-over 296 Friday over the 6,107-yard, par-72 Great Waters layout that left them only two shots behind Mercer. Delaware, however, struggled to a 312 in Saturday’s second round before closing with a 10-over 298.

   Delaware was led by Alisa Khokhlova, a junior from Russia who finished among a trio of players tied for ninth place at 7-over 223. Khokhlova opened with a solid 2-under 70 and struggled to a 79 in Saturday’s second round before closing with a 2-over 74.

   Oihana Etxezarreta, a veteran senior for the Blue Hens from Spain, finished in a tie for 21^st place with a 226 total. Etxezarreta added a 77 in Saturday’s second round to her opening round of 4-over 76 before finishing up with her best round of the weekend, a 1-over 73.

   Freshman Marissa Malosh, a two-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier at South Fayette, and Lilia Henkel, a junior from Grand Rapids, Mich., both ended up in the group tied for 31^st place, each ending up with a 230 total.

   Malosh matched par in the opening round with a 72 and struggled to a 79 in Saturday’s second round before closing with a solid 2-over 74. After opening with a 4-over 76, Henkel registered back-to-back 77s in the final two rounds.

   Rounding out the Delaware lineup was Christina Carroll, a senior from Bear, Del. and a product of William Penn High School who finished in the group tied for 43^rd place with a 233 total. Carroll opened with a solid 2-over 74, but struggled to an 80 in Saturday’s second round before closing with a 79.

   Carroll is a Philadelphia Section PGA Junior Tour success story. She was showing up in this blog years ago and it was fun to watch her scores improve year after year.

   It was a tremendous accomplishment last summer when Carroll qualified for the U.S. Women’s Amateur at Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles. Carroll bounced back from an opening-round 78 at Bel-Air with a solid 71, although she didn’t make the cut for match play.

   There’s a neat story on the Delaware website right now about Carroll, titled “From the 302, For the 302,” a reference to the northern Delaware area code which includes the University of Delaware and Carroll’s home town of Bear. The Delaware roster has players from all over the country and all over the world, but Carroll is a First Stater through and through.

   Carroll said she was proud to have her Delaware bag with her when she teed it up in the U.S. Women’s Open. And I’m sure Post has been thrilled to have a native Delawarean be such a stalwart for the Blue Hens these last few years.

   A couple of freshmen, Julia Paviet from France and Emilie Clauson from Denmark, competed as individuals for Delaware at Lake Oconee.

   After opening with an 80, Paviet posted an 82 in Saturday’s second round before closing with an 81 to finish in the group tied for 71^st place with a 243 total. Clauson added an 82 in Saturday’s second round to her opening-round 83 before closing with an 81 to finish in 75^th place with a 246 total.

   Mercer, a Southern Conference representative, closed with an 8-under 280, easily the best team round of the weekend, to finish with a 1-under 863 total. The Bears had opened with a 6-over 294 and got it in at 1-over 289 in Saturday’s second round when a lot of the other teams struggled in what, I’m guessing, might have been difficult conditions.

   Mercer teed it up in the inaugural National Golf Invitational last spring, a tournament put together by Golfweek for teams that just missed earning an at-large bid to one of the NCAA regionals, sort of like an NIT for golf, held at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa, Ariz. and the Bears finished in third place.

   It was in the middle of May when there was a lot of golf going on, but I don’t think I ever gave Penn State, a program (full disclosure: Penn State Class of 1977) that this blog generally follows pretty closely, its props for winning the team title in the National Golf Invitational, 11 shots clear of Big Ten rival Iowa.

   The Nittany Lions were led at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes by now junior Michelle Cox, a three-time PIAA Class AAA qualifier during a standout scholastic career at Emmaus who earned a runnerup finish in the individual standings.

   Turned out to be a great going-away present for Penn State head coach Denise St. Pierre, who announced days later that she was retiring after more than 40 years with the program in one way or another. Basically, she arrived in Happy Valley as a player in 1979 and never left.

   OK, back at Lake Oconee, it was a two-horse race for the individual title between Dubnik and Jarvela.

   Dubnik matched par in the opening round with a 72 and her 2-under 70 in Saturday’s second round gave her a one-shot edge on Jarvela going into the final round. Another 2-under 70 in the final round gave Dubnik a 4-under 212 total and a two-shot victory over Jarvela for Dubnik’s second career collegiate victory.

   Jarvela also matched par in the opening round with a 72 and trailed Dubnik by just a shot after adding a 1-under 71 in Saturday’s second round. Jarvela closed with another 1-under 71 to earn runnerup honors with a 2-under 212 total, two shots behind her teammate. Dubnik and Jarvela were the only two players to finish under par for 54 holes.

   Western Kentucky, a future rival of Delaware’s in Conference USA, was the runnerup in the team standings at Lake Oconee as the Hilltoppers opened with a 300 and added a 5-over 293 in Saturday’s second round before closing with an 8-over 296 that left them 26 shots behind Mercer with a 25-over 889 total.

   Western Kentucky was led by Catie Craig, a junior from Sautee Macoochee, Ga. who finished in third place in the individual standings, four shots behind Mercer’s Jarvela with a 2-over 218 total. After opening with a 1-over 73, Craig added a 75 in Saturday’s second round before finishing up with a solid 2-under 70.

   Craig was the Conference USA individual champion last spring, the first Hilltopper in the history of the program to win an individual conference crown. She then became the first Western Kentucky player to tee it up in an NCAA Regional when she was invited to compete in the Athens Regional as an individual.

   It was another seven shots behind Western Kentucky to Chattanooga, another Southern Conference representative, in third place in the team standings with a 32-over 896 total. The Moccasins opened with a 9-over 297 and added a 304 in Saturday’s second round before closing with their best round of the weekend, a 7-over 295.

   East Carolina, playing out of the American Athletic Conference, got it into red figures in the final round with a 2-under 286 as the Pirates finished a shot behind Chattanooga in fourth place with a 33-over 897 total. East Carolina had opened with a 305 and added a 306 in Saturday’s second round.

   Boston College shared fifth place with Delaware in the 14-team field as the Eagles closed with a 6-over 294 to join the Blue Hens at 42-over 906, nine shots behind East Carolina. Boston College struggled to a 309 in the opening round before adding a 303 in Saturday’s second round.

   Jarvela’s fellow Finn, freshman Ellas Maki-Tanila, gave Mercer a third finisher inside the top eight as she closed with a sparkling 4-under 68, which matched the low round of the tournament, to end up in eighth place with a 5-over 221 total. Maki-Tanila had struggled to an 80 in the opening round, but bounced back with a 1-over 73 in Saturday’s second round.

   Katie Scheck, a junior from Greensboro, Ga. who transferred to Mercer after spending the first two seasons of her college career at Penn State, had three straight 3-over 75s to finish among the group tied for 15^th place with a 9-over 225 total.

   Rounding out the Mercer lineup was Eujin Pyon, a redshirt senior from Macon, Ga. who closed with a solid 1-under 71 to finish in the group tied for 27^th place with a 228 total. Pyon opened with a 3-over 75, but struggled to an 82 in Saturday’s second round.

   Craig’s Western Kentucky teammate, Addie Westbrook, a senior from Campbellsville, Ky., finished in a tie for fourth place in the individual standings with Western Carolina’s Elizabeth Lohbauer, a senior from Venice, Fla., and Chattanooga’s Violeta Fernandez-Tagle, a freshman from Spain, each ending up a shot behind Craig at 3-over 219.

   After opening with a 2-over 74, Westbrook matched the low round of the tournament with a 4-under 68 in tough conditions in Saturday’s second round before struggling a little in the final round with a 77.

   After signing for back-to-back 2-over 74s in the first two rounds, Lohbauer closed with a 1-under 71. Fernandez-Tagle added a 1-over 73 in Saturday’s second round to her opening-round 74 before matching par in the final round with a 72.

   Boston College’s Cynthia Zhang, a sophomore from Milpitas, Calif., finished alone in seventh place with a 4-over 220 total as she matched par in each of the last two rounds with back-to-back 72s after opening with a 4-over 76.

   Joining Delaware’s Khokhlova in the tie for ninth place at 7-over, two shots behind Mercer’s Maki-Tanila, were Fernandez-Tagle’s Chattanooga teammate Nieves Martin, a junior from Spain, and East Carolina’s Macie Burcham, a redshirt sophomore from Greensboro, N.C.

   After opening with a 5-over 77, Martin matched par in each of the last two rounds with a pair of 72s. Burcham added a 4-over 76 in Saturday’s second round to her opening-round 75 before matching par in the final round with a 72.