Team Final | Player Final | Combo Final
WATERLOO, Ill. – The University of Indianapolis women’s golf team rallied Sunday to claim the 2012 Great Lakes Valley Conference Women’s Golf Championship, marking a league-leading sixth conference crowns for the Greyhounds. Indianapolis (309-296—605) fired the lone sub-300 round of the event in Sunday’s final round at Annbriar Golf Course in Waterloo, Ill., to earn a five-stroke victory over runner-up Drury (309-301—610). The Panthers’ Katrina Choate earned medalist honors with a 1-under-par 143 (71-72), which tied the GLVC 36-hole winning score record, set by Drury’s Tonya Choate (no relation) in 2006 and Lewis’ Reeta Laakkonen in 2000.
The GLVC’s major postseason awards were also announced Sunday, as Maryville’s Kayla Eckelkamp was tabbed the conference’s Player of the Year and UIndy’s Jaclyn Schindler and Brent Nicoson took home Freshman and Coach of the Year honors, respectively. Additionally, the top-five finishers and ties were named All-Conference, while the remaining five honorees will be announced in the coming week. Joining Choate as All-GLVC honorees are Indianapolis’ Darin Pinnick (74-73—147), Eckelkamp (76-72—148), Missouri-St. Louis’ Daniela Viotti (74-76—150) and Shweta Galande (76-75—151) and Lewis’ Vanessa Phillips (73-78—151). Rounding out the top-10 finishers were UIndy’s Jenny Konop (79-73—152) and UMSL’s Bailey Hopper (74-78—152) in a tie for seventh, Southern Indiana’s Taylor Merriss (76-77—153) in ninth, and Drury’s Lauren Michael (82-73—155), UIndy’s Amy Thompson (82-73—155) and William Jewell’s Chloe Kittle (76-79-155) tied for 10th.
All six of UIndy’s conference titles have come in the last 13 years as the Greyhounds captured three straight from 2000-02 and earned back-to-back crowns in 2009-10.
Missouri-St. Louis (302-313—615), Southern Indiana (320-324—644) and Northern Kentucky (333-314—647) placed in the top five, while Lewis (326-323—649), Bellarmine (337-333—670), Illinois Springfield (328-348—676), Rockhurst (354-327—681) and Kentucky Wesleyan (356-374—730) completed the top 10. Quincy (389-379—768) and Saint Joseph’s (377-397—774) finished 11th and 12th, respectively. While William Jewell did compete at the event and register a 357 in the final round, the Cardinals did not earn a team score in the first round as a player failed to sign her scorecard, which resulted in her disqualification and dropped the Cardinals’ four-member team to three. That meant no team score would be given for the opening round, leaving Jewell with a DNF (Did Not Finish) as its official tournament result. Despite Maryville’s Eckelkamp posting a third-place finish, the Saints only brought three golfers to Waterloo, leaving them out of the official standings as well.