Colorado State University Athletics
Preview: CSU to close regular season in Tulsa
4/6/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
WEEKLY RELEASE #11 (PDF) / ROSTER / SCHEDULE / RECORD BOOK
Dale McNamara Invitational / April 10-11
Tulsa, Okla. / Tulsa Country Club
Live Scoring
THE FINAL STRETCH
Colorado State will play its 10th and final tournament of the regular season next week, traveling to Tulsa, Okla., for the Dale McNamara Invitational. The Rams are most-recently coming off of a 16th-place finish at the Bryan National and look to put forth their best effort heading into the conference tournament. CSU has shown glimpses of talent throughout the season, but has struggled to put three good rounds together.
"We need to get some confidence and momentum going, and that's really the goal for this tournament as we head into the Mountain West Championship," head coach Annie Young said. "We're looking forward to the challenge."
The two-day tournament begins with 36 holes on Monday (7 a.m. MT start), followed by 18 holes on Tuesday (7 a.m. MT start). Live scoring can be tracked through BirdieFire. CSU's lineup features Katrina Prendergast, Ellen Secor, Brianna Becker, Elisabeth Rau and Jessica Sloot. Caroline Reiners will compete as an individual.
Teams competing include: BYU, Cincinnati, CSU, Fresno State, Kansas, Missouri State, New Mexico State, Oral Roberts and host Tulsa. The tournament will be played at the Tulsa Country Club in Tulsa (Par 70, 6,112 yards). The course was the site of the 1999 and 2014 NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championship.
Following next week's action in Tulsa, CSU will close the season with the Mountain West Championship, April 17-19 in Rancho Mirage, Calif. NCAA Regionals will take place May 8-10; a year ago, freshman Katrina Prendergast was invited to compete as an individual after she finished runner-up at the Mountain West Championship.
DANGEROUS DUO
Freshman Ellen Secor and sophomore Katrina Prendergast earned top-20 performances at the MountainView Collegiate (March 10-12), placing in 14th and 16th place, respectively.
It marked the third time this season that at least two Rams have placed in the top 20 of a tournament, with each one featuring Secor and Prendergast.
Prendergast jumped onto the scene a year ago as a freshman, setting a single-season school record for stroke average and finishing runner-up at the Mountain West Championship and qualifying for NCAA Regionals. As a sophomore, she has six top-20 finishes (two top-10), including all four tournaments during the spring season. She paced the Rams with a 1-over 217 in their most-recent competition, tying for 14th place out of 98 golfers.
Secor has followed in Prendergast's footsteps as a successful freshman, finishing fifth as an individual at the Ptarmigan Ram Classic, her first collegiate competition. She followed that performance up with top-12 placing the next two tournaments, plus the 14th-place finish in late March.
Their season stroke averages of 74.19 (Prendergast) and 74.96 (Secor) are on pace to finish third and fourth, respectively, in school history.
SUCCESS IN THE CLASSROOM
CSU's women's golf team posted a team GPA of 3.78 this past fall, the highest among all CSU teams in 2016. Looking back further, four of CSU's six golfers from 2015-16 earned Mountain West Academic All-Conference honors for holding a cumulative grade-point average above 3.0, with three of them on the Rams' 2016-17 roster. Additionally, Brianna Becker and CSU graduate Mikayla Tatman were named All-American Scholars by the Women's Golf Coaches Association. Dating back to 2004, at least one Rams golfer has been a recipient.
MAJORITY BACK
CSU had its best season in recent memory in 2015-16, and this year, the fourth season under head coach Annie Young, the Rams are poised to take another step in the right direction. CSU returned the majority of its production from its record-breaking season a year ago, including its top finisher in all but one tournament. In total, the Rams brought back four of five letterwinners and 72 percent of their total lineups from last year.
NEW FACES
While the majority of the Rams' lineup from last season returned to the course, CSU added three talented student-athletes, a group that is already making an impact on the team.
- Caroline Reiners - A transfer from University of Aachen, in Germany, Reiners came to CSU with three years of eligibility. In high school overseas, she competed for Golfclub Schloss Myllendonk and was a four-time junior club champion, also winning the adult title twice. She twice finished top 10 at the state championship and has 30 individual titles to her name.
- Ellen Secor - A native of Portland, Ore., Secor was a four-time All-Metro League selection at Sunset High School. At the 2015 Oregon Class 6A state championship, she set a high school state record by shooting a 66 in the first round, on her way to a fourth-place finish. She qualified for several national tournaments over the past year, including last year's U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball.
- Jessica Sloot - A native of Fruit Heights, Utah, Sloot won the 2015 5A state title and finished in the top four all four years of her prep career. In addition to her individual accomplishments, she led Davis High School to two state titles and four top-three finishes, plus a trio of conference championships. She competed with Secor in the 2016 U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball.
A CUT ABOVE
The Rams' 2015-16 team scoring average of 297.72 set a school record by more than four strokes. The previous high of 301.73 was set in 2008-09. Contributing to the low figure is the fact that three of CSU's seven golfers held individual stroke averages that rank among the top 10 in school history, including freshman Katrina Prendergast, whose 73.69 was a school record.
GREB TO JOIN RAMS' PROGRAM
In November, prep star Haley Greb signed her National Letter of Intent to play for the Rams, beginning this fall. Greb, from Pendleton High School in Oregon, earned four all-state honors and won the 2016 Oregon Junior Amateur.
YOUNG APPOINTED TO NCAA COMMITTEE
In September 2015, CSU head women's golf coach Annie Young was named to the NCAA Division I Women's Golf Committee. The four-year appointment extends through the 2018-19 academic year. As part of the committee, Young makes monthly conference calls, selects teams for regionals and evaluates potential rules changes, in addition to other tasks. During the spring, she traveled to regionals and the NCAA Championship, representing the NCAA.
"I'm honored that I get to play a role in the progression of women's golf," Young said at the time. "I'm most excited to learn how everything works. It will be neat to be part of the selection process, and to learn more about the most-efficient way of scheduling."
Players Mentioned
