MSUB golf women open spring with Yellowjacket Invite next week

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Evan O’Kelly Director of Communications O: (406) 657-2130 E: evan.okelly@msubillings.edu Thursday, March 24, 2016 MSUB golf women open spring with Yellowjacket Invite next week

MSUB’s women’s golf team has its first tournament of the spring next week, while the men play their second as both teams host the Yellowjacket Spring Invitational at Pryor Creek Golf Club.

BILLINGS, Mont. – Both men’s and women’s golf teams from Montana State University Billings are set for their lone home tournament of the spring season next week, as the Yellowjacket Spring Invitational is set for Monday and Tuesday at Pryor Creek Golf Club in Huntley, Mont.

For the Yellowjacket women, it will be the first tournament since the team’s home event in the fall, and for the men it will be the second event of the spring after last week’s Cal Baptist Invitational.

“It will be great to have our home tournament, and we are excited to have the teams that are coming in,” commented interim head golf coach Kevin Woodin. “This will be a good opportunity for us to play our entire squads, and also to have peoples’ families watch them play. There is a lot of local flavor with these teams.”

The two-round event will feature 18 holes played each day, with the teams starting at 1 p.m. on Monday and turning around with a 9 a.m. start Tuesday morning. Admission is free of charge for all spectators.

The Yellowjacket women closed the fall on a high note, running away with the team title at the Yellowjacket Fall Invitational last October. Overall, the team finished in the top-10 in four of its five fall events, and has three tournaments coming up this spring before the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships April 18-19 at the Coeur d’Alene Resort in Idaho.

“I hope we can continue with the momentum the team started gaining at the end of the fall,” Woodin commented. “The women are extremely dedicated and organized, and have excellent team unity. I’m hopeful that we can pick up where they left off and get off to a good start in the spring.”

MSUB’s women’s team is led by freshmen Kortney McNeil and Anna DeMars, who rank third and fourth in scoring average in the GNAC, respectively. McNeil had a stellar fall, averaging a score of 75.0 over her first 10 rounds.

Finishing in the top-10 in four events and the top-5 once, McNeil took home the individual title at MSUB’s fall tournament. Her lowest round in the fall was a 71, one stroke away from tying the MSUB women’s singleround record of 70.

In the team’s best performance of the fall, McNeil finished tied for eighth place with a 146 (71-75) at the NCAA Division II National Preview Invite, where the squad set a program single-round record with a score of 297 and finished seventh overall at 610 (297-313).

Close behind McNeil in the fall was DeMars, who averaged a score of 77.5 while competing in all 10 rounds for the ‘Jackets. DeMars had three top-10 finishes and twice finished in the top-5, earning GNAC Golfer of the Week after tying for third place in her first-ever collegiate tournament in Longmont, Colo.

McNeil turned in a stellar fall for the ‘Jacket women, leading the team in scoring average and approaching MSUB’s single-round record with a score of 71 at the NCAA D2 National Preview tournament.

Sophomore Bailee Dexter also posted a scoring average below 80 through the fall season, checking in at 78.6 over 10 rounds. Dexter had a pair of top-10 finishes and fired a low-round score of 74, and her thirdplace finish at MSUB’s tournament highlighted her fall.

Junior captain Haley Shackelford earned one top-10 finish in four events during the fall, averaging a score of 80.5 over eight rounds. Shackelford posted back-to-back rounds of 77 at MSUB’s fall tournament to take home her highest finish of the fall season at second place.

“Haley has done a great job as the captain of her team, and she has worked hard on her game,” Woodin said. “We have put an emphasis on improving our game from one hundred yards and in, so we’ll be able to save some strokes around the greens. We also want to be better with our wedge play and putters, and that is a common theme that I feel the whole team has been improving upon.”

Sammy Walter also competed in all 10 rounds for MSUB in the fall, averaging a score of 82.1 and finishing in the top-10 once. Her low score of the fall, a 75, came during the Western New Mexico Fall Invite in Avondale, Ariz., in September.

Rounding out the six-member team for the ‘Jackets is freshman Shealyn Hafer, who’s fall was highlighted by a hole-in-one at the Dixie State Invite in Hurricane, Utah in early October. Hafer averaged a score of 83.6 overall in the fall, scoring one top-10 finish and a low-round score of 77 over eight rounds in four events.

The Yellowjacket women will compete in the Western New Mexico Invitational on April 1-2 in Goodyear, Ariz., before playing in a tournament hosted by Montana State University in the same Arizona city a week later. The ‘Jackets will then look to make a run at a GNAC title, after finishing as the runners up at the conference championships the last two seasons.

“We have the talent to compete at a high level in our league,” Woodin said. “If we can get consistent play from our four and five positions, then I think the opportunity to place high at the GNAC is very realistic. This is a young, but very talented team.”

Other women’s teams featured at MSUB’s upcoming home event are Carroll College, Rocky Mountain College, Miles Community College, and Montana Tech.

Hafer holds up her ball after acing the 15th hole

The men’s tournament will coincide with the women’s event, as both teams at Sand Hollow Resort in St. George, Utah last fall. will be in action simultaneously along the Elmer Links Course at Pryor Creek.

Men’s teams competing include Carroll College, Miles CC, Minot State University, Montana Tech, and Rocky. MSUB’s men are coming off a 16th-place finish at their first tournament of the spring at the Cal Baptist Invitational March 21-22 in Corona, Calif.

“I am thankful for Pryor Creek allowing us to use their venue again for this event,” Woodin said. “It makes it even better that we are able to provide a quality course for these players.”

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