Three different women's golfers earned medalist honors this week, and each is being honored by the Missouri Valley Conference. Brooke Newell of Missouri State, Taylor Ledwein of Bradley and Sydney Eaton of UNI are joined by Illinois State's David Perkins as this week's MVC Golfers of the Week.
WOMEN
Brooke Newell of the Missouri State women's golf team carded a 75 in the final round of play to win the ORU Spring Invite at The Club at Indian Springs on Tuesday. Over the course of three rounds, Newell shot a 71-68-75 – 214 to blow away the tournament field as she finished with an eight-stroke advantage on Junie Khaw of Tarleton State. Overall, MSU carded an 302-290-308 – 900 to finish 2nd among the seven-team field. The Bears were just two strokes behind Little Rock, who won the event. Johanna Wollenhaupt (74-75-76 – 225) and Abby Cavaiani (74-73-78 – 225) joined Newell in the top-five as they finished tied for fifth.
Senior Taylor Ledwein of Bradley (New Prague, Minn.) took home individual medalist honors for the second straight outing and third time in her career, claiming the top spot at the Jan Weaver Invitational in Murray, Ky. Ledwein led from wire-to-wire, firing a birdie to open a first-round three-under 69 at the par-72 Miller Memorial Golf Course as she carded her school record fifth career sub-70 round. She followed that up with a two-over 74 in Friday’s second round to close the opening day tied for the individual lead. A final round, one-over 73 helped Ledwein finish at even-par 216 as she claimed the medalist honors by three strokes over Belmont’s Delia Gibbs. Ledwein is just the fourth Brave to have three career medalist titles and is the first BU individual to win back-to-back tournaments since Danielle Lemek in 2014-15. Bradley finished fourth in the event (907) with the team’s lowest 54-hole score since the fall of 2019. Evansville and Southern Illinois also competed in the event. UE's Sophia Rohleder took home fourth place individually (223), while SIU was led by Erica Kerr and Janie Samattiyadeekul who tied for 18th with a 229.
The UNI women's golf team finished in second place at the UNI Spring Invite. UNI's Sydney Eaton earned medalist honors with a final day 75 to shoot 222 for the tournament. The Iowa Hawkeyes won the team title with a three round total of 897 with help from a third round 296. Eaton also had a top-10 finish this weekend at UNO's Stampede At The Creek in Omaha, Neb., on the Red Feather/Blackbird - Indian Creek Golf Course. Teammates Emily Snelling and Hannah Bermel tied for third. Drake's Kristen Giles finished tied for second with a three-round score of 223 at the UNI Spring Invite to help the Drake women's golf team finish third out of four teams. Giles carded rounds of 72-74-77 – 223 to lead the Bulldogs and finish in a three-way tie for second place, just one stroke off the lead set by UNI's Sydney Eaton. Giles' first-round 72 was the lowest to open the tournament.
Three MVC women's teams competed at the Illinois State Redbird Spring Invitational, hosted by Illinois State at the par-72, 6010-yard Weibring Golf Club in Normal, Ill. Illinois State finished second to Northern Illinois, led by Ali Schrock's second-place finish (73-74-78--225). Three other Redbirds finished in the Top 10 in the individual standings of the four-team field. Emma Sutton was 4th (227), Maria Bailey was 6th (230) and Emma Rouger tied for ninth (232). Valpo's Payton Hodson turned in a top-15 finish during the tournament at 237 (+21, t-14) by going 81-79-77, closing the event with back-to-back sub-80 rounds. Meanwhile, Loyola was led by a pair of golfers who tied for 16th -- Abbey Meyers and Caroline Dayton -- at 241.
MEN
Three strong rounds put Illinois State in the upper half of a strong and Big Ten-laden tournament on Saturday and Sunday, as the 'Birds took sixth place overall at the 2021 Boilermaker Invitational, as David Perkins had two of his three rounds under par, finishing in the top-10 individually in a field that featured eight top teams ranked in the Top 100. The Redbirds had a three-round score of 872 (285, 298, 289), as Kent State took home the team title with an 852. Illinois (854), Minnesota (859), Purdue (859), and Indiana (860) all finished ahead of ISU, while Michigan State (879), Wisconsin (881), Northwestern (882), Ohio State (884), Eastern Michigan (886), Toledo (891), Southern Illinois (891), Cincinnati (893), Miami – Ohio (902), and Ball State (903) rounded out the 16 teams in the field. David Perkins of Illinois State finished ninth with a three-round 214, while Southern Illinois was led by Justin Wingerter with a 218, which featured a final round 69. In the second round, Perkins led ISU with a two-under 70, a round that included four birdies, two bogeys and a dozen pars. He followed that up with a one-under 71 in the final round with three more birdies, two bogeys and 13 pars to end in a tie for ninth place overall. For the weekend Perkins was -5 on par-fours (3.83 per par four), which was the second-best scoring average in the tournament.
Bradley was paced by senior Alex Ciaramitaro and freshman Josh Kirkham at the Flyer Intercollegiate in Kettering, Ohio. The pair finished in a tie for 45th at 12-over (222) at the par-70 NCR Country Club North Course. Ciaramitaro was consistent throughout, carding rounds of 73, 75 and 74, while Kirkham opened play with the low round of his Bradley career (70), before round of 74 and 78.
UNI's Griffin Parker (76-73-78--227) led the Panthers to a 7th-place team finish in a nine-team field as he tied for 17th individually at the Stampede at the Creek in Omaha, Neb. Earlier in the week, UNI hosted a match-play event and went 2-0, defeating Wartburg 4-2 and beat Western Illinois in a tiebraker after tying 3-3. UNI won 11-5 in the hole differential to finish 2-0 on the day. Tommy Doyle won both matched 2&1 while Jack Reeves dominated 2 opponents, winning 8&7 and 7&5.
Missouri State and Evansville played at the Big Blue Intercollegiate. UE's Isaac Rohleder tied his career-low round on Tuesday to help the Evansville finish in a tie for 7th place. The Evansville native carded a 2-under 69 in the final round to finish in a tie for 10th place with a 3-round tally of 214. His round on Tuesday matched the career-low of 69 that he posted in the first round of the Murray State Invitational in the fall of 2019. Rohleder posted rounds of 71 and 74 on Monday. Missouri State's Max Kreikemeier and JP Lavalle tied for fourth overall with a two-round 212. Kreikemeier carded a 69 in the opening round and closed the tournament with a 69 in the final 18.