Gahm leads charge to 4th-place finish

Though they left the course midway through their first round Monday after rain delays halted play and shortened the 54-hole tournament and then finished the round Tuesday, struggles from the day before seemed to linger on for the IU women’s golf team members.

They left the Indiana Invitational, a tournament they won just a year earlier, on Monday one shot behind their B-team. After first-round play was finished Tuesday, the team sat in 10th out of a 15-team field, 21 shots behind eventual tournament winner, Louisville.

And though Louisville turned the tournament into a race for second, finishing Tuesday as 22-shot winners with a 36-hole team score of 593, IU was able to crawl its way back into the pack, finishing fourth, and just seven shots back from second-place Eastern Michigan.

Sophomore Kate Coons led the charge for IU. After shooting 83 in the wet first round, Coons battled back and fired a one-over par 73 in the second round. Coons finished tied for 19th with a two-round total of 156.

IU’s No. 1 player, freshman Lindsay Gahm, finished first overall for the team in the tournament, following her first-round 76 with a 77 late Tuesday to finish tied for eighth with 153.

Sophomore Jackie Yanch finished tied with Coons for 19th after carding two 78s for the tournament. Junior Kristtini Cain followed, just one stroke back, after shooting a second-round 75.

The IU B-team, which coach Clint Wallman chose to play in order to help him decide on a post-season roster, finished tied for ninth.

Senior Cecilia Orevik finished first for the second squad in a tie for 14th with 155, just two shots back of the first team’s Gahm.

After the team’s lone home tournament of the year, Wallman and his squad will begin to prepare for their final regular season tournament of the year, the Lady Buckeye Invitational sponsored by Ohio State on April 16-17.