FREMONT, Neb. – In the first outing of the spring for Concordia University women’s golf, accomplished junior Amy Ahlers outplayed each of her GPAC competitors at Monday’s Midland Spring Invitational at Fremont Golf Club. Ahlers’ fourth-place finish helped the Bulldogs to a second-place claim among the 10 teams in the field. Of those 10 teams, nine were from the GPAC and the other was tournament champion Iowa Western Community College.
Though the 368 was Concordia’s highest score among its eight 2015-16 rounds, it was good enough to defeat GPAC leader Mount Marty, which shot a 369 on Monday.
“We didn’t play as want to, but we were able to get second place,” Muller said. “As a whole, our short game really hurt us. We had a lot of three-putts and left some shots out there so that will definitely be a focus this week in practice.”
Ahlers has now turned in a top-five individual finish in four of six events during her junior season. She entered the spring with a team low average of 78.7. On Monday she carded a 12-over-par 85 while turning in eight pars and one birdie. She was the lone Bulldog to shoot a score in the 80s. In her career, the native of Albion, Neb., has collected five tournament titles.
Junior Kayla Krueger and sophomore Brenna Gnuse both shot a 93 and tied for 16th among the 68 golfers at the Midland Invite. Concordia was also represented in Fremont by sophomores Ashlen Pospisil (T-29th, 97) and Lauren Sperry (54th, 110) and freshman Madison Pitsch (67th, 132).
Gnuse’s 93 was nearly seven strokes better than her season average entering the spring.
“She had a stretch of holes where she played pretty well,” Muller said. “Top to bottom, one through five, we just need 18 consistent holes.”
The Bulldogs will be back in action on Friday when they take the course at Miracle Hill in Omaha for the College of Saint Mary Spring Shootout. It will mark a return to the site where Concordia broke the program’s single-round record with a team score of 335 in the second round of the College of Saint Mary Fall Invitational on Sept. 9.