NORMAL, Ill. – Records went to the wayside on Sunday and Monday at the 2023 Redbird Invitational, as the Illinois State Redbirds set tournament records for low team tournament score, low individual tournament score, and low single-round score – twice.
The Redbirds' team score of 866 tops the previous school record of 870 set last season at the Falcon Florida Classic, as each of the three lowest tournament scores in school history have come since the spring of 2001.
ISU newcomer Jinyoung Yun had two rounds during the tournament of 67, lower than any other golfer in program history. Four different golfers in ISU women's golf history have carded scores of 68 or lower, and three of them – Yun, Avalon Woodward, and Ali Schrock – are on this season's team.
Yun's tournament score of 204 is seven strokes better than the previous tournament record of 211, set last season at the Falcon Florida Classic by current ISU senior Woodward, as the record before Woodward set it was a 214 by Samantha Richdale on September 24-25, 2005 at the Lady Northern Invitational.
Bradley took the individual title at the tournament with a team score of 865, one stroke ahead of the Redbirds, while South Dakota State (874), St. Thomas (877), Northern Illinois (882), South Dakota (891), Bowling Green (896), Butler (898), Northern Iowa (907), IUPUI (909), Drake (913), Illinois Wesleyan (919), Indiana State (935), Evansville (942), Eastern Illinois (960), and Valparaiso (968) rounded out the 16 schools in the field.
The Redbirds return to action on Monday, September 25 on the first day of the three-day Johnie Imes Invitational, hosted by Missouri at the Club at Old Hawthorne.
Yun was the individual runner-up, taking second only to Bradley's Grace Aromando who set an Invitational record with a three-round score of 200. Yun was under par for each of the three rounds, including five under during the first and last rounds, and two under par in the second round. Her final round on Monday had six birdies and 11 pars, and a solitary bogey on her 17th hole.
Woodward placed 14th in the tournament field with a three-round score of 221 (+5), with rounds of 70, 79, and 72. Her even-par final round saw 16 pars with just a single birdie and bogey throughout the course.
Ali Schrock improved her individual score in each of the three rounds of the event, opening with a 77, and following with a 74 before ending with an even-par 72 to see her three-round 223 tie for 19th. She had the program's only eagle of the tournament on the third round, along with two birdies and a dozen pars.
Both Vinisha Gunaseelan and Michaela Kverkova ended with tournament scores of 224, tying for 25th place at eight strokes over par. Gunaseelan ended her tournament with an even-par 72, carding 16 pars, one birdie and one bogey. Kverkova's final round of 79 (+7) had three birdies and 10 pars throughout.
Dani Grace Schrock saw a final-round 78 (+6) push her to a tournament score of 225 to tie for 30th, and she had 13 pars over her final 18 holes. Kira Wolf's final-round 77 saw her tie for 58th with a 232, while Reagan Kennedy shot an 80 for a three-round score of 239 to tie for 74th.
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