Chris Day
ASC Sports Information
The Adams State College women’s golf team received history-making news Monday afternoon as the Grizzlies were selected to compete in the NCAA Division II Central Regional Tournament in St. Paul, Minn.
The selection marks the first time in their relatively young 6-year history that the Grizzlies have qualified for NCAA Championship play as a team. The Grizzlies will enter the May 1-3 affair to be played at Hillcrest Golf Club as the ninth seed.
The Grizzlies coached by Jay Meyer were one of just three Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference teams selected behind No. 2 seed Western New Mexico, the recipient of the conference’s automatic qualifying spot, and No. 5 Mesa State.
The RMAC also had three of the four selected individuals as both Michaela Breit and Dominique Dinallo of Colorado State-Pueblo were chosen along with Regis’ Lara Pocs and St. Cloud State’s (Minn.) Emily Kerber.
Those four individuals were from the teams that were in the three spots behind the Grizzlies in last week’s final set of weekly regional rankings.
The NSIC had the other six selected teams, including top-seeded and NSIC Champion Augustana (S.D.) and the regional-hosting Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears, who earned the No. 3 seed.
Also selected were Minnesota State, Southwest Minnesota State, Upper Iowa and Winona State (Minn.).
The top three teams and the top three individuals not on those teams after the 54-hole regional format will advance to the NCAA Division II National Championships to be played May 11-14 in Allendale, Mich.
The Grizzlies are enjoying their best-ever season and have a stroke average of 338.2, a full 11.9 shots better than their previous record of 350.1, set a year ago.
Three Grizzlies in senior Kendall Martin, junior Kelsey McSpadden and true freshman Kyra Garrison are also within striking distance of the Grizzlies’ individual single-season scoring average record of 84.5 That mark was set in 2008-09 by then-senior Jenny Ives , who had qualified as an individual for the NCAA regional, where she finished in a 22nd place tie in Sioux Falls, S.D.
Prior to Monday, Ives had been the only Grizzly women’s golfer to ever been picked for NCAA play.
Martin is averaging 84.6 shots per round this season while McSpadden is just behind at 84.8. Garrison’s average of 84.9 is the best of any Grizzly freshman in school history.
Each of those three players have five top-20 finishes this season.
Meanwhile, redshirt sophomore Samantha Hall and senior Codi Hegg each have two top-20 efforts this season and are averaging 86.9 and 87.4 shots per round this season, respectively.
The Grizzlies will depart Alamosa on Friday and will play in a practice round on Saturday before starting the completion Sunday.
The Grizzlies are ranked ninth in the final regular weekly addition of the regional rankings, released by the NCAA Division II Women’s Golf Committee.
They slipped one spot in this week’s poll but are still ahead of rival Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference rival Colorado State-Pueblo, who is currently on the outside looking in, in the No. 10 spot.
The ThunderWolves, who were ranked eleventh a week ago, have also competed their regular season schedule, finishing fourth at the RMAC Championship Tournament. The Grizzlies finished fifth, just one stroke back.
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