Spencer, Iowa – Dakota Wesleyan Women's golf comes up short of a GPAC title Tuesday afternoon, but Megan Hinker highlights the program individually tying for second overall to bring home All-GPAC honors. As a team, DWU women's golf continued to improve throughout the three rounds shooting as low as 343 in the final round keeping them in second place overall.
The Quick Details
Place Player R1 R2 R3 Total
T2 Megan Hinker 83 81 83 247 (+31)
T11 Erin Moncur 91 89 84 264 (+48)
T14 Ashton Austreim 87 94 87 268 (+52)
27 Kaylee Johnson 98 87 88 273 (+57)
Not included in team scoring
39 Becky Koepke 100 94 88 282 (+66)
2 Dakota Wesleyan 359 351 343 1053 (+189)
How It Happened
All the Tigers posted a strong round in the morning yesterday despite having cold temperatures in the morning with gusty winds. Hinker was leading the team after just the first 18-holes shooting an 83, while Austreim was second, carding an 87. The second round of the first day, Hinker continued to lead the Tigers cutting a pair of strokes from her game as the weather improved shooting an 81. Johnson and Moncur were close behind in the second round alone shooting 87 and 89, respectively. After the first day, Hinker was tied for the lead shooting a total of 164. Moncur and Austreim were tied for 16th and 18th shooting 180 and 181. Johnson wasn't far behind carding a 185 tying for 32nd-place. Koepke who was not included in the team scoring, tied for 41st after day one shooting a 194.
The third and final round on the second day was about the same as day one with high winds, but the Tigers were able to adjust to the weather and it was reflected in the scores. Hinker carded an 83 in the final round after having to scribe a double and triple bogey on holes nine and three, but cleaned up her game on the back nine marking only a trio of bogey shots as she finished the GPAC tournament tied for second place. Moncur dropped four strokes off her game in the final day only needing to mark two double bogey shots helping her climb and tie for 11th overall. Austreim and Johnson shot similar scored in the final round helping them both climb the individual board tying for 14th and placing 27th overall. Koepke who was not included in the scoring, improved significantly from her first round yesterday, dropping 12 stokes overall and six strokes from her second round as she finished in 39th-place overall. As a team, the Tigers secured second place, shooting a 343 in the final round, making it their best team round of the two-day event to shoot a combined 1,053.
With Hinker's finish to close out the season, she also earned All-GPAC honors for her second year in a row.
Picks Thoughts
"I am extremely proud of this group. This team has supported each other and battled all season. This GPAC Championship had brutal winds, which made scoring very difficult. I thought everyone did a great job of avoiding big mistakes, which helped up get within a few shots of Briar Cliff multiple times today; we just couldn't quite close the gap. I'd like to honor [Megan] Hinker as she has played her final found as a DWU Tiger. She's been an incredible player, but an even better person and leader. Everyone else that's returning will be looking to put themselves back into this position to win a conference championship title next year."