W. Golf
Course Work Complete: Mocs Finish Third at NCAA Division II National Finals
MESA, AZ – As the top-ranked Nova Southeastern Sharks marched toward their second straight national championship, the biggest battle was taking place right behind them. With four teams within nine strokes of second place at the start of the day, 2nd-ranked Rollins was able to hold off the challengers and #4 Florida Southern finished third at the 2010 NCAA Division II National Finals with the best round of the day.
Taking a 35-stroke lead into the final round, there was little doubt Nova would claim the title, the 11th straight won by a school from the Sunshine State Conference. With Rollins finishing second, it marked the eighth time during that streak that an SSC school also finished as the national runner-up. Nova, Rollins, Florida Southern and Barry have all taken their turn in one of those positions, and throw in 2007 individual champion Daniela Iacobelli from Florida Tech, and it’s easy to see why the league has dominated play at the national level.
Nova Southeastern’s final margin of victory was far short of the tournament record of 74 set by Florida Southern in 2002, but winning by 40 strokes was impressive enough. The only real drama was who would finish second, and Rollins was able to hold on by the slimmest of margins in a battle with Florida Southern that went down to the final hole.
Florida Southern and Tarleton State (TX) began the final round tied for third place and trailing the Tars by eight shots. Both teams made a run, and at one point the Mocs even caught them. The Tex-Anns were among the first three teams to finish, and at that point were sitting alone in third, five strokes behind the Tars and four ahead of the Moccasins. Fifth-place Sonoma State was also done and had fallen out of the race by counting a pair of 81’s.
With key birdies by M.J. Audette and Marianne Andersson, the Mocs inched closer to the Tex-Anns, cutting the deficit to two. Silvie Dittertova then struck the big blow for Southern, picking up an eagle on her final hole, the par-five #18. That put Florida Southern and Tarleton State in a tie once again, and gave the Mocs one more chance to catch Rollins with Audette and Kim Ulander still on the course.
Ulander’s birdie on 16 pushed Florida Southern into sole possession of third, and with Rollins’ fourth counter, Brianna Seo, stumbling to the finish line with three straight bogeys, the Mocs were on the verge of passing the Tars too. However, the Tars’ Joanna Coe birdied 17 to give her team a one-stroke advantage that held up to the end.
Audette had the Mocs’ best round of the tournament with an even par 71. If she wasn’t already, the sophomore from Lakeland is officially on the map with a fourth-place individual finish at the National Tournament. After starting the week with an 82, Audette roared back with scores of 72, 74 and 71, and gave Florida Southern a top-10 finisher for the 15th year in a row.
Dittertova and Andersson each had a 75 on Saturday, and Ulander shot a 78. It was the second day in a row the Mocs had all four of their counters in the 70’s and it gave them a team score of 299. That was two strokes better than Nova in the final round, and made Florida Southern and Nova the only teams to break 300 in any of the tournament’s four rounds.
While the Sharks celebrated their second team championship, their own Sandra Changkija won her first individual title. The junior finished second last year when she went into the final two holes tied for the lead with Lyndsay McBride of Indianapolis, who ended up beating her by two strokes. This time, Changkija started the day in second place trailing Maria Luz Besio of Newberry by four shots, but she nearly made up the difference before she ever stepped on the course.
Starting play well over an hour ahead of Changkija, Besio had a double-bogey on hole #1, and a bogey on #4 put her at three-over for the day. What followed was even worse, with Besio scoring an eight on the par-four #6, then going six-over during the next four holes after that. By the time she got things under control, Changkija had parred her first nine holes and had gone ahead by 10 strokes.
At one point, Besio even fell to third behind Coe, but a late rally that saw her play the final six holes at three-under allowed her to finish the day with an 82. That put Besio six shots behind Changkija at the end of the tournament, but still five shots ahead of Coe, who finished third.
M.J. Audette was four strokes behind Coe, and tied with two other golfers for fourth place with a score of 299. Silvie Dittertova tied for 16th with a score of 307, Kim Ulander tied for 21st with a 309, Marianne Andersson tied for 25th with a 310, and Emily Flanigan tied for 42nd with a 320.
This year marked the 10th time Florida Southern has finished in the top three of the National Tournament. The Moccasins have won four national championships, most recently in 2007, and finished as the national runner-up four times as well.
