NIU women’s golf opened its spring season tying for fifth place at the Bowling Green State University Women’s Intercollegiate, which wrapped up Wednesday.
“I think what helped us finish in the top 5 was obviously Alexa (Ouellet) and Caroline (Kent)’s play with both being in the top 10,” said NIU women’s head coach Kim Kester. “The conditions were tough with the wind and cold temperatures. However, the team fought really hard in the second round to overcome that. (We) need to reduce big numbers for the future.”
Freshman Alexa Ouellet led the Huskies with a third place finish amongst 80 golfers that participated in the BGSU Women’s Invitational, Ouellet finished the tournament six-over par, posting 219 strokes over the three rounds.
“I think picking out my target spots and putting were pretty strong this week,” Ouellet said. “I made some mistakes out there, but I was able to make up for them when I needed to.”
Ouellet’s best round score of the tournament came in the third round when she scored an even par score of 71. Ouellet scored under par 10 times in this tournament.
“It’s huge. With kind of a smaller size field and a field where I know that we can come out on top of making birdies,” Ouellet said. “It’s definitely good for confidence and being able to compare to other people.”
This includes Ouellet scoring under par 4 times in a row.
“It was very impressive with how many birdies she had throughout the three rounds. She had a couple of waves where she had three, four birdies in a row that, you know, kept in her the game. The grit she showed was fantastic.” Kester said.
Senior Caroline Kent was the Huskies next player on the leaderboard, finishing tied for 10th place. Kent finished the tournament with a score of 228.
Kent’s best round of the tournament was in the second round when she logged 73 strokes.
Graduate student Emma Thorman finished four strokes behind Kent in the individual standings, as Thorman finished tied for 27th place. Thorman finished the invitational with a score of 231, and her best round came in the third round when she totaled 74 strokes.
Freshman Mia Raines tied for 41st place, finishing with a score of 235. Her best round came in the second round with a score of 74.
Freshman Dakota Tallent rounded out the Huskies’ lineup, finishing tied for 53rd place. She finished the invitational with a score of 238.
Tallent’s best round of the invitational was when she scored a 76 in the third round.
“Overall thoughts is, you know, It’s great that Alexa (Ouellet) and Caroline (Kent) played well. As a whole group, we didn’t play as well as we would have hoped to,” Kester said. “It’s still early in the year that we have time to work on the things we need to and be in contention for a MAC Championship but we have a lot of work to do before we get there.”
UP NEXT
NIU’s next invitational is an all-day event that begins Feb. 25 and concludes Feb. 26. The Huskies will travel to Phoenix, Arizona, competing at the GCU Golf Course at the Grand Canyon University Invitational.
