March 4, 2008
San Antonio – Matt Vela took fourth overall as the St. Mary’s University men’s golf team placed sixth at the rain-shortened Texas A&M University-Commerce Crawford Wade Invitational Tuesday. Jenna Wessels placed 13th overall as the women’s team placed 14th at the St. Edward’s University Invitational.
Vela (Fr., San Antonio) shot an opening round 75 to tie for fourth overall, four strokes behind Colby Shrum of the University of Central Oklahoma. Brad Aycock of Southeastern Oklahoma State University was second, two strokes behind Shrum, while Jack Bartlett of Henderson State University was third with a 74. Rain in the Pottsboro area on Tuesday forced the cancellation of the remainder of play.
Southeastern Oklahoma State took the team title, shooting a 304. Southwestern Oklahoma State University was second with a 307, West Texas A&M University was third with a 308, St. Edward’s University and Central Oklahoma were tied for fourth with 313s and Henderson State and St. Mary’s tied for sixth with identical totals of 316.
James Grant (So., San Antonio) finished 15th with a 77, Jerry Holguin (Fr., San Antonio) was 39th with an 81, Preston Akromis (Jr., San Antonio) was 52nd with an 83, while Jimmy Willingham (Sr., San Antonio) finished 61st with an 85.
For the Rattler women, Wessels (So., Katy) shot a two-round total of 166 (84-82) to finish 13th overall in a very strong field. Kristin Davenport of Southwestern University took medalist honors with a 157, followed by Shraddhanjali Singh of Tarleton State with a 159 and Stephanie Bird of Northeastern Oklahoma State with a 162.
The University of Texas took top honors in the team competition with a 649 (331-318), followed by Tarleton State with a 652, St. Edward’s with a 662 and Southwestern with a 677. St. Mary’s placed 14th with a 728 (372-356).
After Wessels, Ursula Perez (Fr., San Antonio) finished 64th with a 185, Amanda Anderson (Jr., San Antonio) was 65th with a 186, Marie Hulsey (So., El Paso) was 75th with a 191 and Sonya Sanchez (So., McCamey) was 88th with a 212.
The men’s golf team will return to action on March 24 when they travel to Edmond, Okla., to play in the Kickingbird Invitational. The women will next tee it up in Goodyear, Ariz., for the Grand Canyon Invitational.