Ace Hunt
GoSycamores.com
PEORIA, Ill. -- Following a weekend off, the Indiana State women's golf team returns to action for the Bradley Spring Invitational on Saturday & Sunday, April 2-3 at the Weaver Ridge Golf Club in Peoria. This event will feature two rounds of play on Saturday and one final round on Sunday, marking the Sycamores' second 54-hole tournament during the spring campaign. Weaver Ridge Golf Club is a par-72, 6,065-yard lay-out.
Indiana State is the defending champion of the Bradley Spring Invite, but will return only player from last year's winning team. Junior Marissa Uradomo won medalist honors at the Butler Invitational two weeks ago and carded a career-best round of 69. Uradomo took home MVC Women's Golfer Of The Week honors and currently has the seventh-best stroke average in the conference.
Her performance led the Sycamores to the Butler Spring Invitational Championship -- the seventh team tournament win under head coach Greg Towne and the 10th in the history of the program. ISU opened play at Butler with a round of 297, which is tied for the second-best single round performance in school history. They finished with two-day score of 616 and the victory.
“We hope to keep the momentum going from our win last week but this event will present an entirely new challenge for the team,” Towne said. “The forecast is for cold temps around freezing for the first two rounds Saturday, with winds 25-35 mph and gusting to 50. It will be extremely difficult and require a lot of grind.”
In addition to Uradomo, freshman Thilda Staubo posted rounds of 73 and 79 to finish third with a career-best score of 152 -- just one stroke out of the school's all-time Top 10. It was Staubo's first career Top 10 performance and the best finish of her career. Sophie Benetti made it four events in a row in which she has finished inside the Top 20 with a tie for sixth place and a score of 158. Robyn Blanchard posted rounds of 75 and 83 for a two-day score of 158 and a tie for sixth place. Blanchard carved 17 strokes off her previous career two-day best.
“Everyone gets the chance to play this week as we try to pin down the starting lineup for conference,” Towne commented. “We had 3 personal bests last week which shows good improvement. This week we need to be the best at what we are not good at. That is, staying in it when you can't tell what a good score is and throwing the concept of par out the window. We are likely to have similar types of weather challenges at the MVC Championships at Harborside as well so it will be a valuable experience.”
The event begins with 36 holes on Saturday and features an 9 a.m. (ET) shotgun start. The final round is Sunday with an 9:30 a.m. (ET) shotgun start. Participating teams include: host Bradley, DePauw, Drake, Evansville, Illinois-Chicago, Indiana State, Loyola, Omaha, Northern Iowa, SIU Edwardsville, Western Illinois, and Green Bay.
