By Samantha Meyer
After having a season’s best performance at the Morehead State Citrus Challenge, the Cleveland State University women’s golf team headed to Kentucky to participate in the Colonel Classic.
The Vikings went into the tournament with their heads high, having many great performances the weeks prior.
At the Morehead State Citrus Challenge on March 17-19, the Vikings placed sixth, finishing the closing round with a 307. Junior Kaylee Neumeister finished tied for fourth, leading the Vikings after shooting rounds of 74-75-72, to post an overall score of +5.
Also finishing in the top 20 was sophomore Madison Butler, who finished tied for 13th with rounds of 77-76-76 with a score of +13.
Many of the other athletes also had great performances at Morehead. Sophomore Ashley Knight was the third highest finisher on the team with rounds of 79-76-78, and finished tied for 28th place with her was freshman Meg Rossouw. Rossouw had rounds of 77-76-80 and finished at +17.
On March 29, the Vikings started their day in Kentucky at the Colonel Classic. On day one, Butler began the tournament with a three-over par 75 over the par-72 and then shot a 77 over the final 18 holes to conclude the day. She sat just outside of the top 20 after day one.
Also having a solid day of shooting was Neumeister, who shot rounds of 79-77 on the first day of the Colonel Classic.
Neumeister sat in 41st place after day one, with Knight and Rossouw close behind in 54th and 59th place. At the end of day one, the Vikings were in 12th place, 10 strokes ahead of Tennessee Tech University and behind Belmont University by just two strokes.
On day two of the Colonel Classic, the Vikings had great success. Knight, in her final round, shot a 74, becoming CSU’s leading scorer at the Colonel Classic.
Knight’s strong finish placed her 33rd overall with a 54-hole score of 233. Neumeister shot a 79 on the final day of competition and finished tied for 42nd with a total of 235. Butler finished 45th overall with a score of 236, after a tough round on day two where she shot an 84.
After a tough individual day, Butler could see the team is improving from tournament to tournament.
“I think so far this season, we are making a lot of progress as a team,” Butler said. “Every tournament we play in, we get better and improve.”
Cleveland State finished 12th overall with a 54-hole total of 944.
As the ladies head back home to Cleveland, they look forward to improving their game next week at the Dolores Black Falcon Invitational at Bowling Green State University.