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The Carleton College women’s golf team stumbled for the first time this season, finishing 10th out of 19 teams at the Illinois Wesleyan Spring Fling. The Knights won their first six competitions of the 2014-15 campaign but finished the weekend with a total of 651 strokes, their worst 36-hole score since September 2013.
Carleton entered the tournament at No. 7 in the Golfstat national rankings but did not have a golfer break 80 in either round for the first time since April 2013, a problem exacerbated by playing in a field that included nine of the top-30 Division III teams in the country.
“Obviously we were disappointed with the performance,” said Carleton head coach Eric Sieger. “We showed a lot of rust, both technicaly and mentally. We had some really good stretches of golf, especially on Sunday, but we couldn’t close out that round.”
Shannon Holden (So./Simi Valley, Calif./Royal) tied for 33rd in the 103-golfer field. She paced the Knights with 161 strokes (81-80, +15), and Grace Gilmore (Jr./ Edina, Minn./Edina) finished one shot behind (82-80, +16) in a tie for 39th.
Geraldine Tellbuescher (So./ Ashiya, Japan/Canadian Academy) and Taylor Wells (Sr./Rochester, Minn./Century) were next on the Carleton scoreboard, totaling 165 strokes. After being one of three Knights to card an 82 on Saturday, Kelsey Moede (Sr./Lake Oswego, Ore./Lake Oswego) concluded the weekend with a score of 169.
National No. 3 Washington (Mo.) University won the tournament by seven shots with a team score of 605. No. 8 Rhodes College was next at 612 followed by No. 25 Illinois Wesleyan University (624).
“We didn’t get the ball in play enough off the tee and thus didn’t hit as many greens in regulation as we normally do,” said Sieger. “We weren’t able to offset our subpar ball striking with our short games. With all that said, we know we’re close to getting back to where we were in the fall, and we just need some solid practices to get back in the groove.”
Carleton will send players to the BU Royal Match this weekend.