Sept. 12, 2005
Normal, Ill. -
Hilary Anderson finished the 2005 Badger Women's Golf Invitational in Madison, Wis. with rounds of 76, 75, 76 for a total of 227, good enough for a tie for 14th place. The Redbirds finished fifth, with a team total of 920 (307,306,307).
"Overall I thought that we had a solid tournament," said Kralis. "A top-five finish certainly bodes well when you look at the national picture. Looking at the national rankings, going one up against Texas Christian, Oklahoma, Iowa State and Kansas State, that's huge in the big picture-- a solid performance all the way through."
Anderson finished 12 shots behind leader Onnarin Sattayabanphot of Purdue. Following Anderson by one stroke, Samantha Richdale tied for 20th place with a 228 (79,74,75). One stroke behind Richdale was teammate Ashlie Rose, tied for 24th with a total of 229 (76,76,77). Chelsea Bach tied for 42nd with a 236 (76,81,79) and Kaitlin Troop tied for 67th place in her first collegiate tournament with a 251 (86,83,82).
Kralis recognizes the competitive field and is satisfied with the team's performance.
"We had a good team performance in this solid of a field," said Kralis. "We were missing a real low score that was needed to compete with the top teams in this field. But to start the year in this kind of field where 11 of the top 12 teams were ranked in top 90 last year says a lot. To play another solid round to back up a solid performance yesterday was very gratifying."
Purdue took the team victory with a total of 879. Following Purdue was Texas A&M, Missouri in third and New Mexico State in fourth. Finishing behind the `Birds was Wisconsin and Oklahoma in seventh, and making a jump from 11th yesterday to eighth today was Texas Christian. Tied for ninth place was Kansas State and Iowa State with scores of 935. Rounding out the field was Arkansas-Little Rock and Minnesota.
Kralis feels the `Birds have room for improvement, but show great potential for the upcoming season.
"We did struggle on the greens a little bit and we have a little work to do in our short game to get ready for Michigan State," said Kralis. "This tournament was a great starting point; and we can build off of this and look forward to the upcoming events. The team can take a lot of confidence from this because they know that we played well and it shows a lot of depth, which indicates to me that there is an unbelievable amount of potential. Certainly, I've known this all along and this will reaffirm in their minds that they're one of the best teams in the region."
The Redbirds return to play September 17-18 as they travel to East Lansing, Mich. to play in the Mary Fossum Invitational held at Forest Akers West Golf Course
