Badgers Send Six to Big Ten Championships
April 25, 2008 | Women's Golf
The University of Wisconsin women's golf team hits the green this weekend at the 2008 Big Ten Championships. The Badgers, and the 10 other teams in the conference, will fight for the Big Ten title on the par-72, 6,300-yard Penn State Blue Course in University Park, Pa. Six UW golfers are competing and they include senior Katie Elliott, juniors Jeana Dahl, Isabel Alvarez and Natasha Lopez, sophomore Kelsey Verbeten and freshman Carly Werwie.
The Badgers are on a roll as they head into the Big Ten Championships and have been playing some of their best golf of the spring. The team placed fifth at its last two invites and competed against a majority of Big Ten schools last weekend at the Lady Buckeye Invitational. In Columbus, Ohio, Wisconsin finished fifth out of the 12 teams with a score of 924. Eight conference teams competed at the invite and the Badgers placed fourth out of the Big Ten teams.
A few individual golfers have also come on strong late in the season. Freshman Carly Werwie has been the team leader at the previous two invites. She recorded a career low score of 225 at the Susie Maxwell Berning Classic back on April 6-7. She tallied scores of 72, 71 and 82 for the three respective rounds and her second round score of 71 was a season low for any UW golfer. Werwie then led the Badgers again at the Lady Buckeye Invite and she had a career best finish as she tied for eighth with a 228. Werwie has a scoring average of 77.9 and she ties with junior Natasha Lopez for the third-best scoring average on the team.
'Carly has just been very patient and her work habits are outstanding, and that 's allowed her to work through the adjustment early on,' UW head coach Todd Oehrlein said. 'And she's obviously very talented. She has been patient and she has worked extremely hard, and I think those are the keys to making that step. In particular in her golf game, I would say the biggest difference is she just has taken a really significant jump in how well she's putting right now and her short game in general. She's saving shots that early on in the fall she wasn't able to save and she wasn't holding rounds together the way she is at this point. '
Sophomore Kelsey Verbeten also led the Badgers at two invites this year. She had the best finish and scores of her career at the Rio Verde Collegiate Invitational on March 7-9. At the invite, Verbeten scored a career low of 226 to tie for 14th. Verbeten led the team again at the Betsy Rawls Longhorn Invite from March 17-19. Teams only played two rounds because of inclement weather but Verbeten led the Badgers with a tie for 29th and a two-round score of 161 (81-80). Verbeten has the second best scoring average on the team at 77.8.
As the team's only senior, Katie Elliott has the most Big Ten Championship experience. The Madison, Wis., native is competing in her fourth conference championship and she enters the competition as Wisconsin's leader with a 76.6 scoring average this year. Elliott 's best finish at Big Tens came during the 2005-06 season when she finished tied for 22nd with a 307 (76-72-77-82). Elliott earned Wisconsin's lone Big Ten Golfer of the Week award after she led the team at the Lady Puerto Rico Classic on Feb. 24-26. She also had the best scores of her Badger career when she took first at the Hawkeye Invitational in the fall. Elliott scored a 217 (72-73-72) to win her second collegiate individual title.
'Katie goes into this tournament looking to be the individual medalist, and that's something that she'll work hard on this week and she'll come in and she'll be prepared,' Oehrlein said. 'You know that without question, when that tournament starts, she'll be prepared and excited to get it started.'
Dahl has competed in all 28 rounds this year and she has a 79.4 scoring average. Her season low came at the Rio Verde Invitational when she scored a 228 (79-76-73). Lopez will be competing in her first Big Ten Championship. She transferred from Richmond and averaged a 77.9 during her 25 rounds this year as a Badger. Her best scores of the season came at the Wolverine Invitational in the fall when she tied for sixth and finished with a 225 (78-74-73). Alvarez will be competing in her third Big Ten Championship. She played 11 rounds this year and she is averaging an 81.4.
The Badgers will look to break out of their two-year streak of ninth place finishes at the Big Ten Championships. Wisconsin scored a 1,272 at the 2007 championships in East Lansing, Mich., and were led by then-sophomore Dahl. The Fargo, N.D., native scored a 312 (80-76-80-76) to tie for 18th. Wisconsin's lone Big Ten Championship came in 1994 but the Badgers did finish as runner-up in 2003.
Be sure to check back to uwbadgers.com throughout the weekend to see Wisconsin 's results at the 2008 Big Ten Championships.
