IU makes regionals

The NCAA Division I Women's Golf Committee has announced the teams and individuals selected to participate in the 2003 NCAA Division I Women's Golf Championships Regionals. \nIU will make its 11th-straight NCAA Regional appearance, when the Hoosiers travel to the Central Regional May 8-10 at the Firethorn Golf Club in Lincoln, Neb., held by the University of Nebraska.\nThree regional tournaments will be conducted May 8-10 to determine the championships field. Regional tournaments are considered preliminary rounds of NCAA championships competition.\nTo date, the IU women's golf has won three tournaments this season and is ranked No. 32 nationally by GolfWeek/Sagarin ratings. However, in the Central Regional the Hoosiers received the 16th seed. Pac-10 conference champion California owns the top spot, with Big Ten rivals Purdue, Michigan State and Wisconsin competing in the regional as well.\nThe Hoosiers will not let the seeding affect how the team will approach the tournament.\n"We've never looked at rankings," senior Cara Stuckey said. "Every team comes in with a clean slate. We just need to go out there and play well for three days."\nJunior Karen Dennison is coming off a superb performance at the Big Ten Championships, where she finished with a share of the Big Ten title. Last week's Big Ten Championships marked the fourth time this year that Dennison has claimed the top spot in a tournament. The team, however, did not perform as well as Dennison last weekend, as the team placed eighth. The last time the Hoosiers qualified for nationals was in 1998. But the team is looking for a solid performance and a chance to return the program back to top stage in collegiate golf.\n"It has been our goal for the last couple years to make it to Nationals," Dennison said. "We're pretty excited to get a chance, but we have to perform well next week."\nA total of 324 participants have been selected for the regional competition. Of these players, 126 will advance to the championships finals May 20-23. Eight teams and two individuals will advance from each region. \nThe championships finals will be held at Birck Boilermaker Golf Complex in West Lafayette, held by Purdue University.