Griz finish 14th at Southern Dunes

The Montana women's golf team closed with a team score of 318 on Thursday to finish 14th at the Wyoming Cowgirl Classic, held at Ak-Chin Southern Dunes Golf Club in Maricopa, Ariz.

After playing in heavy winds for 36 holes on Wednesday, which resulted in scores of 333 and 324, the Grizzlies used milder conditions on Thursday to card their best round of the tournament.

"The conditions were a lot better, but our energy was a little low from the grind of yesterday, being in the wind all day and playing 36 holes," said assistant coach Jeff Allen.

"The difficulty of playing yesterday was something we weren't quite ready for. I don't think we were mentally ready for that amount of grind."

Raina Ports (80-78-76) was Montana's low golfer, tying for 45th in the 90-player field. She birdied her first hole on Thursday and played 13 of her final 17 holes at par.

Bella Johnson (85-76-79) tied for 63rd, Kate Bogenschutz (86-84-84) and Hannah Ports (89-86-79) both tied for 81st. Kylie Franklin (81-82-82), playing as an individual, tied for 71st.

Regular-season collegiate golf rules did not allow Franklin to sub in as a scoring option for Montana after Elle Higgins was forced to withdraw during Wednesday's second round.

"The course conditions were still challenging," said Allen. "The greens were still firm, the fairways were still firm. It's a tough golf course even when the weather is great.

"The girls felt a lot better about their games today, even though the scores may not have showed it. There was some progress made in certain areas of everyone's game that they can take to Estrella."

Iowa State (291-297-279) used an incredible final-day performance to pull away for the team title over UNLV (302-287-286). The Cyclones had final-round scores of 69, 69, 70 and 71 on the par-72 course.

Santa Clara (298-300-288), Sacramento State (309-291-288) and Grand Canyon (300-296-296) rounded out the top five.

Iowa State's Karisa Chul-Ak-Sorn (73-72-69) earned medalist honors by a stroke over UNLV's Mayumi Umezu (73-72-70). Ten players finished the tournament 3-over or better.

Montana will remain in Arizona and compete Monday through Wednesday at the Bobcat Desert Classic at the Golf Club of Estrella in Goodyear. The tournament has an 18-18-18 format instead of 36-18.

The Big Sky Conference Championship will be held the following week at Wigwam Golf Club in Litchfield Park, Ariz. That, too, uses an 18-18-18 format over three days.

"Everything now is 18 holes per day. That benefits us for sure," said Allen. "We can put all our effort into the single day and each round.

"Hopefully a few days of rest and some practice can get us re-energized and ready to go for this final stretch."

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Players Mentioned

Kate Bogenschutz

Kylie Franklin

Elle Higgins

Bella Johnson

Hannah Ports

Raina Ports

University of Montana Athletics