NIU women’s golf earned an eighth-place finish at the Diane Thomason Invitational, with two athletes finishing in the top-25.
Finishing with a team score of 922, good for 58 over par, the Huskies finished just two strokes behind North Dakota State University
The Huskies lowest score came in the third round, where the team shot 18 over par, a three-stroke improvement from their second round score.
The host school, the University of Iowa, were the champions of the invitational, finishing with a score of 25 over par, 889.
Montana State University senior Lauren Greeny was the individual champion of the invitational with a score of five under par, 211. Greeny was the only athlete in the field to finish under par for the tournament.
Freshman Emile Chile and sophomore Mia Raines tied for the best finish for the Huskies, coming in 21st place.
Both athletes finished with a score of 14 over par, 230. Raines climbed 14 spots in the final round of play with a score of three over par to notch the top-25 finish.
Sophomores Alexa Oullet and Dakota Tallent also tied in the final standings, coming in 31st. The two Huskies finished with a final score of 16 over par, 232.
Tallent, similar to Raines, climbed 11 spots during the final round thanks to a score of three over par.
Ouellet, who had been the Huskies highest-ranked athlete on the leaderboard all tournament, shot nine over par in Round 3 to fall 16 places to 31st.
Graduate student Caroline Kent finished tied for 54th place with nine other athletes. Kent’s final score was 22 over par, 238, with her best round being the second with a score of six over par.
Junior Eva Nijenhuis, who competed as an individual, was the last Huskie on the leaderboard, finishing in 85th place with a score of 33 over par, 249. Nijenhuis rose four spots during the final round on Tuesday thanks to a score of seven over par.
“This was a mentally and physically tough course this week,” said NIU head coach Kim Kester. “It’s been nice for the slower start to the year as we can pinpoint where we need to work on things in practice. I was excited to see the improvements from the last tournament, and we are moving in the right direction.”
The Huskies will be back in action starting on Oct. 19 at the Jim West Challenge at the Kissing Tree Golf Course in San Marcos, Texas.
