Cougars Finish 14th in Utah Dixie Classic

ST. GEORGE -- BYU closed out its spring season of team invitationals with its Utah Dixie Classic played at Sunbrook G.C. on Tuesday and is looking on to prep for the Mountain West Conference Championship.

The Cougars finished in the middle of the pack after shooting 313-316-313--942 to place 14th out of 22 teams.

"We played about the same as yesterday, which was just average," said assistant coach Dave DeSantis. "And this morning we got off to a pretty slow start."

BYU's leading Cougars on the top-five team were sophomores Natalie Newren and Margaret Gibby, who shot 76-82-75--233 and 77-75-81--233 to place tied for 31st.

"I was not pleased with my ball-striking today and only birdied twice," Gibby said. "However, my chipping was solid, which made up for the poor iron shots, which helped me to get up and down and save some pars. Plus, I learned that it's very challenging to play 27 holes because it's mentally tiring."

DeSantis noticed the same problem of mental exhaustion in many of the finishing scores.

"All the teams' last round scores are so much higher, which I believe it to be because of fatigue," DeSantis said. "But that didn't stop Danielle [von Arnim], our brightest spot for BYU."

Freshman Danielle von Arnim, playing as an individual, was the low scoring BYU player. Von Arnim carded a career-low 72 in her first round on Monday and finished out with a 79 and 76 (227-total) to finish tied for 11th, another career low.

"I'm thrilled to finish in the top 20," von Arnim said. "Today went well because I hit more fairways, but I lost it at the end. My plan for this week is to work on my short game so that I will be prepared for Conference."

Also playing on the top-five BYU team along with Newren and Gibby, was freshmen Catalina Guacaneme and Symantha Mendenhall. The two Cougars shot 80-81-76--237 and 80-78-81--239 to finish tied for 46th and 58th. Natalie Newren's sister, Nicole, finished tied for 89th (82-87-81--250).

After a long but close battle, UNLV pulled ahead of San Francisco to win the championship with a three-stroke lead. UNLV fired a solid 307-307-292--906. Yet, San Francisco's Jordan Auten, who lead the tournament and was tied with her teammate after yesterday, won the tournament individually with a stellar and consistent 73-72-73--218.

BYU's next tournament will be the Mountain West Conference Championship on April 24-26.

"Our next focus is winning the Conference Championship," DeSantis said. "I believe that is what it is going to take for us to move on to the NCAA Regionals. We have about 10 days to prepare for that."

finish 	top 20 schools 	scores
1 	UNLV 		           307 307 292 906 +42
2 	San Francisco	    296 307 306 909 +45
3 	Denver, Univ. of 	308 299 311 918 +54
4 	Colorado, U. of 	 303 320 303 926 +62
5 	Nevada, U. of 	   301 308 318 927 +63
T6 	Portland State 	 313 301 315 929 +65
T6 	CSU-Northridge 	 305 310 286 615 +65
T8 	San Diego State 	317 301 312 930 +66
T8 	Idaho, Univ.     303 317 310 930 +66
T10 	Washington St.  308 312 314 934 +70
T10 	UC Irvine 	     299 308 327 934 +70
12 	Colorado State 	 316 307 284 623 +71
13	Campbell Univ. 	  320 312 305 937 +73
14 	Brigham Young 	  313 316 313 942 +78
15 	Hawaii, Univ.    313 322 294 635 +93
T16 	Weber State 	   324 307 328 959 +95
T16 	Boise State     318 327 314 959 +95
18 	Montana 	        320 317 332 969 +105
19 	Montana State 	  324 333 340 997 +133
20 	Wyoming 	        338 325 341 1004 +140
21 	Idaho State Univ.341 353 341 1035 +171
22 	Mesa State 	     351 354 356 1061 +197
Team and Player Scores
1 	UNLV 		307 307 292 906
T6 	Sunny Oh 	72 77 75 224
T6	Elena Kurokawa 	76 78 70 224
T15 	Christine Hentzner 79 74 75 228
T46 	Tina Mabanta 	80 78 79 237
T46	Hwanhee Lee 	82 83 72 237
2 	San Francisco 	296 307 306 909
1 	Jordan Auten 	73 72 73 218
T18 	Joan M. Shimozaki 71 80 78 229
T36 	Lyndsey Devenish77 76 81 234
T39 	Susannah Laing 	75 81 79 235
T42	Lisa Chen 	81 79 76 236
3 	Denver		308 299 311 918
T11 	Sara Silva 	74 74 79 227
T11 	Kate Waggoner 	81 71 75 227
T29	Tessa Gillam 	76 77 79 232
T29	Kelly Schaub 	77 77 78 232
T71 	Christine Anast 	81 84 79 244
4 	Colorado	 303 320 303 926
T15 	Erin Kerr 	75 82 71 228
T24 	Allison Rella 	74 78 79 231
T39 	Joey Stester 	76 82 77 235
T46 	Maria Perrson-Gulda 78 79 80 237
T46 	Jolene Fellhauer 	80 81 76 237
5 	Nevada, U. of 	301 308 318 927
T9 	Erin LaPlaunt 	74 74 78 226
T20 	Meghan Ingalls 	76 78 76 230
T39 	Jennie Peek 	77 78 80 235
T54 	Alana Condon 	74 80 84 238
T95 	Chandeni Gill 	83 78 92 253
6 	Portland State Univ. 313 301 315 929
T15 	Taya Battistella 	76 74 78 228
T24 	Rebecca Randolph 80 76 75 231
T42 	Sarah Tiller 	77 76 83 236
T54 	Jeana Lee	 81 75 82 238
T60 	Bobbi Dunn 	80 80 80 240
T7 	San Diego State Univ 317 301 312 930
T6 	Sandy Kim 	78 71 75 224
T42 	Shayna Miyajima 80 77 79 236
T54 	Jennifer Hoene 	81 75 82 238
T62 	Claire Riley 	78 78 85 241
T62 	Toni Lutz 	84 81 76 241
T7 	CSU