Sept. 24, 2005
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -
Senior Samantha Richdale birdied six holes in the final round of day one, for an Illinois State record breaking all-time low 69 at the Lady Northern Invitational. Richdale and Maria Hernandez from Purdue share the lead with a two-round score of 141, a never before seen all-time low 36-hole score in ISU history. Adding to her record breaking 69, in the second round Richdale shot a low round of 72 in round one.
"The amazing thing about Sam is from now, until the time she finishes at ISU, I wouldn't be surprised if she broke many more records," said assistant coach Pina Gentile. "She played very steady golf today, but when she started to bogey she really had to dig down and re-group and managed to turn it around from there for her record breaking scores. It was a really neat moment to see her add up her score card in disbelief."
Following Richdale's lead was teammate Kaitlin Troope tied for 16th with a 150 (75,75). Gentile was pleased to see Troope's scores.
"Kaitlin Troope deserves some recognition as well," said Gentile. "She played great today and really helped out the team with her 275. It was wonderful to see her as the 2nd best scorer for both our rounds."
Ashlie Rose tied for 37th with 154 (75,79) and Chelsea Bach tied for 71st with 165 (84,81). Trailing Bach in 73rd, in her first tournament as a Redbird, was junior-transfer Olivia Campos with 166 (82,84). Freshman Marci Hill entered the tournament as an individual participant, and tied with teammate Bach for 71st. Junior Hilary Anderson withdrew from the tournament due to a pulled muscle in her lower back, but plans to return to the tournament on Sunday with permission from the trainer.
The Redbirds finished day one in a tie for seventh with 608 (304,304). Gentile was happy with the team's performance, but has high expectations.
"The first round was missing a decent score, and 304 are good scores, but when we look at what this team is capable of we expect more," said Gentile. "We played well, but we didn't go as low as we are capable of. I would like to see us move up and the top five is realistic. I don't think we need to go out there and do anything great, we just need to play the game we're used to bringing."
Leading the 12-team field was Purdue with 574. Following Purdue was Penn State with 589, Michigan in third with 592 and Notre Dame in fourth with 599. Iowa took fifth with 602 and Indiana took sixth with 604. Illinois State tied with Michigan State for 7th, standing only four strokes behind Indiana. Behind ISU were Big Ten teams Northwestern with 612, Illinois with 615, Wisconsin with 617 and Minnesota with 623.
The third and final round of the competition is set to begin with a shotgun start at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 25 at the par 72 Indiana University Championship Golf Course in Bloomington, Ind.
