Oklahoma Christian pulls away to win Midwestern State Invitational
WICHITA FALLS, Texas (March 12, 2019) – Consistency proved to be the key for No. 17-ranked Oklahoma Christian as the Eagles opened their spring golf season by sweeping to the team title Tuesday in the Midwestern State Invitational.
OC placed three players – Shaley Goad, Abigail Rigsby and Alexandria Bennett – in the top 10 and led the 15-team field in pars with 97, allowing the Eagles to pull away for a comfortable 16-stroke margin over Cameron at Wichita Falls Country Club. Host Midwestern State was third, 19 shots behind OC.
The Eagles posted a team score of 310 on Tuesday, giving them an overall score of 614. That total was the second-lowest 36-hole score in tournament history, just one shot higher than Dallas Baptist (Texas) posted in 2017.
The tournament win was the second this season for OC, which began the fall campaign by taking the title in the Northeastern State Women’s Classic at Cherokee Springs Golf Club in Tahlequah, Okla., and the 11th in the program’s eight-season history.
Goad, a sophomore from Wheeler, Texas, entered the final round tied for first in the 78-woman field and might well have posted her first collegiate win if not for an outstanding round by Imkeleen Meyer of Newman (Kan.).
Meyer posted a 1-under-par 71 on the 5,893-yard course, matching the second-lowest round in tournament history. She finished the tournament at 150 (6-over), one shot ahead of Goad, whose final-round 77 put her at 151, tied with Iona Roska of Cameron.
Two shots further back, at 153, was Rigsby, the tournament’s defending champion. The junior from Courtenay, British Columbia, recorded two birdies and shot a 78, tying for fourth with Sarah Wongsinth of Texas A&M-Commerce.
Bennett, a freshman from Plano, Texas, had three birdies in a five-hole stretch near the end of her round to finish with a 77. Her overall score of 155 put her in a tie for seventh, her best collegiate finish and the second time in as many events she’s landed in the top 10. She tied for eighth in the Oklahoma Intercollegiate at Lawton Country Club to close the fall campaign.
Senior Kate Goodwin of Tulsa rebounded from her first-round 84 to shoot a 78 on Tuesday, tying for 22nd at 162. Goodwin led the field in pars with 22. Senior Elizabeth Freeman of Edmond tied for 24th at 163 after a final-round 86.
The Eagles will be back in action next Monday and Tuesday in the Hillcat Classic, to be hosted by Rogers State at Bailey Ranch Golf Club in Owasso, Okla. OC is the defending team champion in that tournament.