SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Senior Krista Hrdlicka fired a 76, and led the Wichita State women's golf team to its best 36-hole team score in years, as the Shockers finished seventh at the Payne Stewart Memorial, hosted by Missouri State University.
The season-opening event was a good one for a number of Shocker golfers, including Hrdlicka, who finished tied for ninth with a 36-hole score of 154 (78-76); the seventh-lowest 36-hole score in Shocker women's golf history, and the lowest 36-hole score posted by a Shocker since the spring of 2007.
Senior Kristen Kosch fired her lowest round as a Shocker, posting a 78 in the final round of the tournament on her way to a tie for 17th with a final tally of 158 (80-78). Meanwhile, senior Megan Bartlett shaved six strokes off her opening round score of 83, osting a final round count of 77 to finish two strokes behind Kosch in a tie for 25th.
The Shocker sophomores rounded out the team's scorecard. Abby Bartlett fired the best round of her short career as a Shocker, finishing the tournament with a 78, while finishing tied for 29th with a 161 (83-78), while Lauren Hassell's final score of 164 (82-82) found her tied for 39th.
Competing as an individual, Courtney Chamberlin found her touch overnight, posting a final round score of 83; eight strokes better than her opening round score of 91, allowing her to finish tied for 58th with a final score of 174.
As a team, the Shockers fired a 309 in the final round; the best team round since the 2005-06 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship, and finished with a final count of 632 for the fifth-best 36-hole score in the program's 31-year history. It was also the losest 36-hole score since the 1998-99 Mountain View Intercollegiate.
The Shocker squad finished seventh in the event, two strokes behind sixth-placed Arkansas State, and 25-strokes up on eighth-placed Northern Iowa.
"We bounced back today after a bad opening round," head coach Tom McCurdy said. "Our ladies' composure was great all day, and everybody played decently."
Next up for the Shockers is a trip up the Kansas Turnpike to Lawrence for the 2008 Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational, hosted by the University of Kansas. The event will be played at the Alvamar Golf Course, and is slated to begin Monday, Sept. 22.
7. Wichita State: 323-309=632
T9.Krista Hrdlicka: 78-76=154
T17. Kristen Kosch: 80-78=158
T25. Megan Bartlett: 83-77=160
T29. Abby Bartlett: 83-78=161
T39. Lauren Hassell: 82-82=164
T58. Courtney Chamberlin: 91-83=174
--Wichita State--
