Gainesville, Fla. ? The Atlantic Sun Conference champion Stetson women's golf team concluded its historic season Sunday with a 19th place finish at the NCAA East Regional at the University of Florida's Mark Bostick Golf Course. Freshman Lauren Cate (St. Augustine, Fla.) shot four over par 74 in the final round, coming in 10 over par for 54 holes and tied for 23rd place individually out of more than 100 golfers. The Hatters completed the tournament 76 over par for the three-day event.
Cate began the day just four strokes off the cut line for individually qualifying for the NCAA finals; UCF's Stephanie Connelly (even par) and Vanderbilt's Marina Alex (+4) ended up claiming the two spots allocated for individuals from a non-advancing team. Connelly finished second overall in the NCAA East Regional.
Junior Lauren Darnell (Gainesville, Ga.) had the best final round for the Hatters, carding a three over par 73 and ending up tied for 53rd overall at 15 over par for the week. Junior Danielle Jackson (Seminole, Fla.) shot 78 and tied for 61st at +18 while senior Christine Fraser (Kingston, Ont.) had the final counting score of the day for Stetson with a 79. She ended the tournament 33 over par in 99th place. Sophomore Alex Banham (Birmingham, England) shot 85 and came in 107th at +46.
20th-ranked Denver was the surprise regional champion, coming in at 22 over par to outpace sixth-ranked Alabama by four strokes. The six other teams advancing to the NCAA Championships from the East Regional are Tennessee (+33), Virginia (+34), Tulane (+36), Duke (+41), North Carolina (+41) and Georgia (+49). Denver's Dawn Shockley shot 73-70 for the first two days and then finished with a blistering 66 for a -1 total and a one-shot victory over Connelly.
Behind Georgia, the rest of the field finished as follows: East Carolina (+52), Auburn (+53), Vanderbilt (+54), South Carolina (+57), Coastal Carolina (+58), Furman (+63), Florida State (+67), Florida (+68), Ole Miss (+69), UCF (+69), the Hatters (+76), College of Charleston (+84) and Jackson State (+151).
The Hatters return four of the five golfers that competed for them in the A-Sun Championships and the NCAA East Regional including Cate and A-Sun individual medalist Jackson. Added to that will be a talented duo of freshmen signed by Head Coach Floyd Kerr: national top 20 recruit Alex Buelow (Palm City, Fla.) and Anna Hancock (Lakeland, Fla.)
