Saint Mary's finished in 14th place at last weekend's Northern Kentucky invitational, with a two day total of 678. DePauw took first place with 612 strokes."Some of the teams we hadn't competed against before. They had lots of low scores," coach Mark Hamilton said. "On the second day, we didn't compete as well and that put us down on the ladder."Junior Stefanie Simmerman led the Belles with a 35th place finish, followed by junior Chrissy Dunham at 46th, senior Liz Hanlon at 72nd, sophomore Kirsten Fantom at 89th and sophomore Nicole Bellino at 90th. Saint Mary's fared better the first day compared to the following day, with a team total of 331. Nearly all of the golfers topped their best scores of the season, with Hanlon posting 83, Dunham at 80, Bellino shooting 89 and Simmerman recording a 79.Simmerman's scoring average of 82.50 strokes per round leads the team on the season. This was the first time Fantom competed among the top five golfers, according to Hamilton. "She was a little nervous at first, but then started to get back into the groove and got her competitive mind going," Hamilton said. On the second day, the Belles totaled 347 strokes to round out the competition. Simmerman garnered an 82, Dunham scored 84, Fantom finished with 90, Hanlon followed with 91, and Bellino ended her round with 98."The course played a little tougher on the second day," Hamilton said. "We didn't have very good short games, but I was impressed with the ball striking during the meet." This invitational was a learning experience for Saint Mary's. Hamilton described it as an opportunity to identify areas for improvement and to compete against larger teams. He said that the Belles will primarily focus on their short games in preparation for the next meet and for the rest of the season. "We just need to get outside more for practice," Hamilton said. "We should be able to put any five of our players in the lineup and do well. In practice, we're really going to be asking our players to step up. They should be ready to compete at any time."The Belles head to Quincy College April 5 and 6.
