Sooners awarded No. 6 seed in Austin Regional
For the seventh time under head coach Veronique Drouin-Luttrell, Oklahoma women’s golf has been selected to compete in the NCAA Golf Championships. The 20th-ranked Sooners were selected by the NCAA Division I Women’s Golf Committee as the No. 6 seed in the NCAA Austin Regional, which will be held May 7-9 at University of Texas Golf Club in Austin, Texas.
The 18-team regional, hosted by Texas, is one of four 54-hole preliminary events for the NCAA Championship finals. The six schools with the lowest scores and three top-finishing individuals not on an advancing team from each regional will move on to the finals, which are set for May 18-23 at Karsten Creek Golf Club in Stillwater, Okla.
“We’re excited to be selected to play in the NCAA Austin Regional,” said Drouin-Luttrell. “The selection show is always a nerve racking moment because we don’t know where we’ll end up and it’s out of our control. Heading to Austin, we’ll have to go play our own game. We’re as good as any team out there and can’t wait to get going.”
The Sooners will be joined in Austin by Arkansas, Texas, Michigan State, Florida, Auburn, Houston, Miami, Baylor, Texas A&M, BYU, East Carolina, Texas Tech, Virginia Tech, UTSA, Georgetown, Houston Baptist and Missouri State.
Six additional golfers were selected to compete in the field as individuals: Brigitte Dunne (SMU), Xiaolin Tian (Maryland), Greta Bruner (TCU), Katrina Prendergast (Colorado State), Ellen Secor (Colorado State) and Faith Summers (SMU).
The Sooners played the UT Golf Club earlier this season for The Besty Rawls, taking ninth place in the event.
Oklahoma enters the NCAA Championships coming off of a strong regular season that included two tournament titles and seven top-five finishes. The Sooners have claimed first or second place in four of their last six tournaments and boast the fifth-best average score in the country (73.15).
The Sooners have found success from different golfers all season, displaying unprecedented depth throughout the OU roster. Oklahoma is the first school in conference history to have three different golfers earn Big 12 Women’s Golfer of the Month recognitions in one season. Kaitlin Milligan most recently won the honor in February, joining Julienne Soo (September) and Hannah Wood (November).
Seven different Sooners have claimed a top-10 finish this season, including five OU golfers securing at least one finish in the top five.
The Sooners aim to qualify for the finals of the NCAA Championships for the fourth time since 2012.