Ace Hunt
GoSycamores.com
AVON, Ind. -- The Indiana State golf team had three golfers record career bests and stand all alone in first place after the opening day of The Butler Spring Invitational at The Prestwick Country Club, a par-71, 6,085-yard layout.
"We got on our game today," sixth-year head coach Greg Towne said. "It was a cold, tough day and the course was wet and long. The posted scores were high except for us. We had career lows from Robyn Blanchard, Marissa Uradomo and Thilda Staubo. Tomorrow is expected to see 25 mph wind with higher gusts so it will be quite the test. I am proud of the improvement and attitudes the kids are bringing."
The Sycamores fired a team score of 297 and are in first place after one round of play by 16 strokes over Cleveland State (313). Host Butler and IUPUI fired off rounds of 318 to stand in a tie for third place. Wittenberg carded a round of 320 and are in fifth place while Loyola's score of 328 is in sixth. The IUPUI "B" team is in seventh place with an opening round score of 343.
Indiana State's round of 297 was just one off the program record of 296 which came in the first round of the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference Championship. It is tied for the second-best ever with a round of 297 which was recorded during the 2014 Cougar Classic.
Leading the way for Indiana State was junior Marissa Uradomo who posted a career-best round of 69 and currently tops the leaderboard. That score is also just one off a program best and is tied for fourth all-time with McCall Christopher who posted the same score during the 2013 MVC Championship. The school record is 68 currently held by Amanda Smith, Breanne Smith and Reece Feducia. Uradomo's 69 tops the individual leaderboard and is four strokes ahead of teammate Thilda Staubo.
Staubo carded a career-best round of 73 on Monday topping her 74 which came last week during the opening round of the Stephen F. Austin/Oral Roberts Spring Break Invitational. Her score of 73 leads IUPUI's Aneta Abrahamova who posted a round of 74 and is in third place.
The Sycamores have three golfers in the tournament's Top 4 as freshman Robyn Blanchard recorded a round of 75 and is in fourth place. She has a one stroke advantage over Cleveland State's Allyson Hackman and Whittenberg's Jane Hopkinson-Wood who fired off rounds of 76. Blanchard's trimmed two strokes off her career-best of 77 which was set during the fall season at the Cardinal Classic.
Freshman Sophie Benetti, who set a career-best of 72 last week in Dallas, carded a round of 80 to finish in large tie for 13th place. Alex Jennings posted a round of 87 and is currently in 35th place.
Senior Shelby Williams is competing as an individual and her round of 84 is tied for 29th place. Sophomore Dawn Turner carded a round of 88 and is in a tie for 36th place.
The second and final round of the Butler Spring Invitational gets underway on Tuesday, March 22 with a shotgun start at 9 a.m. (ET).
