BYU Finishes Eighth at Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational

TACOMA -- Cougars struggle in the third and final round of Washington's Edean Ihlanfeldt Invt'l to shoot 316 (300-308-316--924) to move back to 8th place out of 11 teams on Wednesday.

BYU finished 19 shots back of the top five but were intent with their showing they had with some of the top 20 nationally ranked teams.

"We didn't hurt ourselves by finishing where we did; we proved to ourselves that we can play at that level," said head golf coach Sue Nyhus. "We played with 4 different top 20 teams and were hitting just as well if not better."

Sophomore Margaret Gibby and freshman Symantha Mendenhall carded the team's lowest score of the final round with a 78. Gibby finished with a top 20 finish after shooting 76-75-78--229 for the tournament. Senior Jessica Gardner missed a top 20 finish by only one shot after shooting 80 in the final round for a tournament total of 74-76-80--230. Mendenhall finished tied for 29th with a tournament total of 77-79-78--233. Sisters Natalie Newren (sophomore) and Nicole Newren (junior) finished tied for 32nd and 52nd after carding an 80 and 84 in the final round for a tournament total of 75-79-80--234 and 75-84-84--243.

"Right now, we're just struggling to keep the consistency together," Nyhus said. "It doesn't look good on paper but it sure does when I'm out here watching them hit the ball."

Southern California's Mikaela Parmlid won the invitational after a play-off with Pepperdine's Lindsey Wright. Both players shot a tournament total of five-under-par while Parmlid finished with 74-72-68--214 and Wright finished with 73-71-70--214.

USC kept the streak alive when shooting 292 in today's round and blew away the field with a 15 shot advantage over Washington's second place finish.

The Cougars head to Honolulu next for Hawaii's Rainbow Invitational on Oct. 28-30 at Kapolei G.C.

Fin. School Score

1 Southern California 292-301-292--885 +9

2 Washington 296-304-300--900 +24

3 Pepperdine 300-300-301--901 +25

4 California 299-303-301--903 +27

5 Stanford 307-304-294--905 +29

6 UCLA 303-301-304--908 +32

7 San Francisco 314-306-299--919 +43

8 Brigham Young 300-308-316--924 +48

9 Oregon State 301-313-313--927 +51

10 Long Beach State 315-308-312--935 +59

11 Oregon 312-315-315--942 +66

Fin. BYU Players Score

T 20 Margaret Gibby 76-75-78--229

T 22 Jessica Gardner 74-76-80--230

T 29 Symantha Mendenhall 77-78-78--233

T 32 Natalie Newren 75-79-80--234

52 Nicole Newren 75-84-84--243