Titans Finish 14th At NCAA Championship
UW-Oshkosh completed its return to the NCAA Division III Women's Golf Championship with a 14th-place finish at the 54-hole tournament held Tuesday through Friday (May 10-13) at the Bay Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas.
The Titans, who were making their first national postseason appearance since 2004, totaled 999 strokes (135-over-par) during a tournament that was reduced by 18 holes after Friday's competition was cancelled due to inclement weather.
Golfers waited out an hour-long lightning delay early Friday afternoon before a decision was made to cancel the rest of the tournament. All scores reverted to the end of the third round and were declared official at that point.
UW-Oshkosh earned its final team ranking by calculating 337 strokes for the first 18-hole round, 324 for the second and 338 for the third. The Titans were also in 14th place after both the first and second rounds.
Rhodes College (Tenn.) was in fourth place after the first round but recorded tournament lows of 298 strokes for the second round and 294 for the third to capture its second NCAA Division III title. The Lynx, who claimed their first national championship in 2014, concluded this year's tournament with 904 strokes (40-over-par).
The University of Texas at Tyler finished second to Rhodes College with 919 strokes, while George Fox University (Ore.) and Wittenberg University (Ohio) shared third place with 920. Defending champion Williams College (Mass.) listed fifth among the 21 teams with 933 strokes.
The 49th-place finish of Kayla Priebe led UW-Oshkosh individually. Priebe totaled 242 strokes (26-over-par) after counting 77 for the first round, 79 for the second and 86 for the third. Priebe achieved her overall score with the help of one birdie and 31 pars.
UW-Oshkosh's McKenzie Paul placed 57th with 245 strokes. She tallied 87 strokes for the first round, 80 for the second and 78 for the third. Paul, who last fall captured the individual title at the WIAC Championship, attained her overall score with the assistance of two birdies and 28 pars.
The Titans also had Laura Stair finish 77th with 256 strokes, Micayla Richards 81st with 259 and Samantha Kuik 93rd with 271. Stair produced one birdie and 26 pars, Richards three birdies and 18 pars, and Kuik two birdies and 16 pars.
All five UW-Oshkosh golfers were competing at the NCAA Division III Championship for the first time.
Caroline Ordian of the University of Redlands (Calif.) won the individual title at this year's championship with 218 strokes (2-over-par). She registered daily rounds of 73, 70 and 75 on the par-72, 5,869-yard course.
Macy Hubbard of Wittenberg University finished second among the tournament's 109 golfers, while Mackenzie Cohen of Rhodes College and Emily Thull of the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) tied for third place with 222 strokes.
Rhodes College's Sarahanne Vaughan and the University of Texas at Tyler's Stephanie Tutt shared fifth place with 224 strokes.
This is the second time that the NCAA Division III Championship was shortened to three rounds. Methodist University (N.C.) won the 2011 title when the fourth round was also wiped out due to weather in Florida.
UW-Oshkosh, which finished fourth in the team standings at the 2004 NCAA Division III Championship and fifth in 2003, qualified for this year's national tournament by winning its fourth WIAC title last fall.