HAVRE DE GRACE, Mary. – Junior Michelle Cox (Allentown, Pa.) fired a 3-under, 69, in Sunday’s final round, her second-straight red figure round, to race up the leaderboard by 19 spots and finish tied for 23rd at 3-over, 219, in the Big Ten Championships at Bulle Rock Golf Course.
As a team the Nittany Lions finished the weekend tied for 13th with Iowa at 38-over par, 902. Penn State got out to a shaky start during cold and windy conditions on Friday finishing the day 22-over before shaving 16 strokes off its total on Saturday posting a 6-over, 294, before finishing the tournament with a 10-over, 298, on Sunday.
Indiana erased an 11-shot deficit to secure the championship with a two-stroke victory over Michigan State after carding a 5-under, 283, on Sunday. Indiana finished the week 8-under with the Spartans coming in at 6-under. Northwestern was the only other team in red figures finishing the weekend third a 1-under while Michigan and Purdue finished tied for fourth at even par to round out the top five.
“I thought Drew and Michelle played awesome this week on a tough championship course,” commented head coach Kristen Simpson. “It was great to see Michelle bounce back after the first day. She is tough and just kept fighting until the end!”
Along with Cox, junior classmate Drew Nienhaus (St. Louis, Mo.) registered her best career finish in the Big Ten Championships in a tie for 28th at 4-over, highlighted by a 1-under, 71, on Saturday when she carded just one bogey. Nienhaus had a stretch of 33 holes from the end of Friday’s first round through her opening nine on Sunday where she registered only two bogeys to go along with six birdies.
“Drew was super steady all week. She had a great mindset going into the event, stayed patient, and stuck to her gameplan,” concluded Simspon.
Graduate student Mathilde Delavallade (Royan, France) concluded the weekend with her best round of the tournament with a 4-over, 76, following back-to-back 77’s on Friday and Saturday. Delavallade concluded the week in a tie for 62nd.
A trio of Nittany Lions made their first career Big Ten Championship appearances as graduate transfer Carlota Garcia (Salamanca, Spain) senior Victoria Tip-Aucha (Vienna, Va.) and sophomore Myranda Quinton (Burlington, Ontario) tee’d it up for the first time this weekend.
Each of the three had their best performances during…
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