Women's Golf Finishes 9th at CCAC Championships
HOMEWOOD, IL — The Governors State women's golf team closed its 2018-19 season with a ninth-place finish at the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships Friday afternoon at the Ravisloe Country Club.
The Jaguars shot 559 for the day and 1,136 for the tournament on the Donald Ross-designed course which played at par-70 and 5,804 yards. Olivet Nazarene defended its CCAC title — winning for the fourth time in six years — with a 657 score, finishing 22 strokes ahead of runner-up Cardinal Stritch (679). As a result, the Tigers earned an automatic berth into the NAIA Championships. St. Francis (683) placed third, followed by Holy Cross (718), St. Ambrose (720), Judson (750), Trinity Christian (825), IU South Bend (834), Governors State (1,136) and Saint Xavier (no team score).
Emily Strunk of Cardinal Stritch was crowned the individual champion with a 155 and will represent the CCAC at NAIA Nationals.
Today's action closed the careers of two Jaguar seniors. Kendall Paris, appearing in her school-record 14th-straight tournament, fired a GSU season-low 94 to finish at 195 over 36 holes. A native of nearby Flossmoor, Paris holds the lowest scoring average (98.5) in school history and last year became the first GSU female student-athlete to compete at CCAC Championship events in two different sports (she ran at the 2017 Cross Country Championships).
Rachel Distor, who played 88 games with the Jaguar basketball team, shot a 149 for a two-day total of 301. She played in three tournaments during her brief golf career.
Other scorers for GSU included Nikea Driver, who turned in a 151 to finish at 293 for the two-day tourney and Autumn Price, who registered a 165, shaving 16 strokes off her first round score to finish at 346. Having joined the Jaguars this spring, both golfers will return for the team's fifth varsity season next year.
"We had a lot of players this year who are fairly new to game," said GSU Head Coach Mark Haines. "We showed improvement and will work hard over the summer to get even better. We will miss having Kendall around and appreciate all she did for our program."
