Greenville, N.C. - Freshman Alexandria Buelow (Palm City, Fla.) shot even par 72 to lead the Stetson women's golf team in the first round of the NCAA East Regional on Thursday at Ironwood Country Club. Buelow is tied for 30th in the 122-golfer field while the Atlantic Sun Conference champion Hatters, who shot 10 over par 298, are in 19th place out of 24 teams. Buelow is just two strokes off the current cut line for individual advancement to the NCAA championships with 36 holes to play.
Low scores were the order of the day on the par-72, 6,321-yard layout at Ironwood CC; 29 individuals and nine teams came in under par in the first round. Buelow made three birdies, three bogeys and 15 pars en route to her even par round. Sophomore Lauren Cate (St. Augustine, Fla.) carded Stetson's second-best score with a 74 while seniors Lauren Darnell (Gainesville, Ga.) and Danielle Jackson (Seminole, Fla.) carded matching four over par rounds of 76. Freshman Anna Hancock (Lakeland, Fla.) shot 77; Cate is tied for 54th place, Jackson and Darnell are tied for 81st and Hancock is tied for 94th.
Nationally fourth-ranked Auburn shot eight under par 280 to claim a one-stroke lead over #11 Pepperdine after 18 holes. South Carolina and Tennessee are tied for third at five under par with Florida in fifth at -4 and A-Sun foe ETSU tied with Texas Tech and Tulane for sixth place at three under par. The top eight teams after Saturday's third round advance to the national finals.
TCU (-1), Duke (+2), Georgia State (+2), Vanderbilt (+4), East Carolina (+5), Chattanooga (+5), North Carolina (+6), Wake Forest (+8), College of Charleston (+9) and A-Sun foe Campbell (+9) are also ahead of the 10 over par Hatters in the team standings with Washington (+17), Furman (+17), Coastal Carolina (+19), Charleston Southern (+27) and Fairleigh Dickinson (+39) rounding out the field.
The individual leaderboard has an A-Sun golfer at the top as ETSU's Nina Muehl shot a blistering eight under par 64 to open up a three-stroke lead over South Carolina's Katie Burnett and the Pepperdine duo of Danielle Kang and Jessica Wallace. The top two individuals not with an advancing team also qualify for the NCAA Championships; TCU's Valentine Derrey (-3) would be in position for one spot with four golfers tied for the other spot at -2.
The NCAA East regional continues tomorrow as Stetson will go off the first tee starting at 8:55 a.m. in groups with players from Charleston Southern and Fairleigh Dickinson. Live scoring is available at golfstatresults.com.
