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Cougars In 13th, Newren 4th At NCAA West Regionals
May 11, 2006
AUBURN, Wash. - BYU's 27th-ranked women's golf team ended the first day of the 2006 NCAA West Regional in 13th place thanks to an impressive one-under-par 71 by junior Rachel Newren on Thursday at the Washington National Golf Club. The Cougars began the day playing the back nine--clearly the more challenging nine on the course--and got in trouble early. BYU was 15- over-par after nine holes, but played a better final nine holes, going just four-over-par. BYU entered the tournament as the 11th seed and are just four strokes out of the coveted eighth place position. The top eight teams in the NCAA West Regional advance to the NCAA championship. Last season BYU finished in 6th place, advancing to the NCAA championship for the first time in 20 years. Second-ranked UCLA is tied with host Washington for the team lead after day one. No. 14 UNLV and 2006 MWC champion UNLV leads BYU by just three strokes. "We kind of got off to a slow start, but we didn't shoot ourselves out of the tournament," BYU head coach Sue Nyhus said. "It wasn't one of our best rounds, but at 307 were still right there with a good chance of moving up tomorrow." Newren, an All-American from Salt Lake City, is tied for fourth place individually. She was three under on her last nine holes after bogeying holes 15, 16 and 18. Newren has finished in the top 15 in her two previous appearances in the NCAA West Regional. Last year she finished tied for third place in leading her team to a sixth place finish. Sophomore Ashley Childers continues her strong run during the the past two months of the season. She went even on the front nine to finish with a five-over-par 77 and is tied for 45th place. Alexis Edwards also played well for the Cougars, finishing with a six-over- par 78 and tied for 53rd place. Danielle von Arnim finished nine-over- par while Juli Wightman was twelve-over after the first round. "Tomorrow is moving day," Nyhus said. "We need to have someone other than Rachel step up and have a good round for us. All season long we've done better as a team in the second and third rounds. Hopefully that'll be the case again."
With just seven strokes separating sixth place from 16th place, the second round will be a key for the Cougars to move out of the log-jam in the middle of the leaderboard. The Cougars will tee off at 12:30 p.m. PST as they gun to move up the leaderboard. You can follow the action live on the internet at www.golfstat.com
BYU INDIVIDUAL SCORES |
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