Senior Stacy Blunt led the Cowgirls to a 13th place finish at last week’s Brigham Young University Entrada Classic in St. George, Utah, March 18. Wyoming played three rounds at the Snow Canyon Golf Course for a combined team-score of 986 (+122).
Blunt’s performance at the classic marked her ninth career top-25 finish and her third top-20 finish within the Cowgirls’ last four events. She sat in 14th place after the first two rounds of play during the opening day with a score of 159 (+15). Blunt wrapped up the final round of play with 79 (+7), bringing her overall score to 238 (+22) to garner a 17th place finish out of the field of 84 golfers.
“Stacey played very well on a very difficult course that is really a target golf course,” said University of Wyoming head coach Josey Stender. “Her effort was very gritty out there today.”
Two Cowgirls, sophomore Kathleen Kershisnik and junior Samantha Stancato, completed the first two rounds tied for 52nd place. Kershisnik and Stancato turned in scorecards of 166 (+22).
Stancato turned in an identical score for round one and round two with 83 (+11). Kershisnik finished the first round one stroke behind Stancato with a score of 84 (+12), but the sophomore improved her second round score by three strokes finishing 81 (+9).
Wyoming finished the first day of action tied for 10th place with a team score of 651 (+75).
“We came out very strong in a difficult set of holes, but we feel we missed some opportunities,” Stender said. “The second round was really difficult due to the level of difficulty with the course conditions.”
The final round of the classic saw an improvement in the weather conditions, but not in the Cowgirls playing; Wyoming fell three places in the field rankings. Finishing with a 13th place position out of the 16-team field, Wyoming ended the competition with a scorecard of 986 (+122).
Senior Emily Wood finished the tournament tied for 50th place with a score of 248 (+32). Wood shot 82 (+10) for the first two rounds and added two strokes to her final round score of 84 (+12) – she finished 10 strokes behind team leader Blunt.
Finishing three strokes and seven positions behind Wood, Stancato ended the tournament in 57th place after she shot 85 (+13) in the final round to bring her overall score to 251 (+35).
Kershisnik’s field standing fell after she added eight strokes to her final round scorecard, finishing the tournament in 65th place with an overall score of 255 (+39).
“We were disappointed with how we finished, but we did some really good things on the course during the tournament,” said Stender, “It was a very tough course that played tougher than it has in the past.”
Minnesota finished in the number one position with a total score of 931 and 67 over par. BYU followed by eight strokes with a total score of 939 (+75). Rounding out the top three, No. 43 Wisconsin finished in third place, falling two places from their first place position after the first two rounds of play. Wisconsin finished with a total score of 942 (+78).
The Cowgirls will head to Tucson, Ariz., this Friday for the Mountain View Collegiate Invitational.
