No. 13 Cougars finish third in Hawaii

KANE'OHE, Oahu, Hawaii (March 21, 2007) -- BYU's thirteenth-ranked women's golf team battled through wet and windy conditions on beautiful Oahu to finish in third place at the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational behind No. 11 Arizona and No. 19 Texas A&M at the Kane'ohe Klipper Golf Course Wednesday.

Just days after capturing the team title at the UNLV Spring Rebel Invitational, BYU encountered a different set of challenges on the Kane'ohe Klipper. Playing in windy conditions and on tropical bermuda grass forced BYU to make adjustments after a somewhat rough first day. During Wednesday's final round the Cougars made the proper alterations to fire an 11-over 299 final round to move into third place behind two top 20 teams. Texas A&M came from behind to beat Arizona on the final day by two strokes to claim the team championship.

"Great teams fight through adversity, and this team definitely fought through adversity this week," BYU assistant coach Dave DeSantis said. "We ran into a little trouble on the first day and then had a much better final round. This tournament has been a good experience for our team and will be good preparation for us because the bermuda grass is very similar to what we will see in Florida at the NCAA Championships."

Three Cougars were among the top 20 individual finishers, led by All-American Rachel Newren, who finished tied for ninth place at 11-over-par. It was Newren's sixth top 10 finish in eight tournaments this season. BYU's Colombian connection of Danielle von Arnim and Natalia Jimenez finished just behind Newren at 12-over and 14-over respectively. Jimenez was three-over on Wednesday and finished in 16th place while von Arnim had a final-round 72 to finished tied for 12th place. For Jimenez, this was her third top 15 finish on the season and von Arnim's second consecutive top 15 finish.

"We came in here looking for another win," von Arnim said. "Unfortunately it took us a couple rounds to adjust to the wind and this course before we really started to play well."

Also scoring for the Cougars was freshman Daphne Vines, who finished 18-over par and tied for 26th place. Juli Erekson finished 23-over par and in 42nd place. The Cougars also had three individuals competing in Hawaii. Freshman Hannah Summerhays led the individual participants at 21-over and tied for 30th place. Alexis Edwards and Ashley Childers finished in 45th and 48th place respectively.

Despite not finishing in first, the Cougars showed they deserve their top 20 ranking by finishing strong and playing well in tough scoring conditions.

"Sometimes it's good not to win because you learn more," DeSantis said. "Our team was fired up after leaving the course today and I heard each of them say, 'I know what I want to work on this week.' It was good to see their determination and desire to get better."

This was BYU's last tournament outside of the state of Utah until the NCAA Championships in May. Next up, the Cougars play host at the BYU Dixie Classic on April 3-4 at Entrada Golf Course in St. George. BYU will actually play its next three tournaments at Entrada. Following the Dixie Classic BYU will return to St. George for the Mountain West Conference Championships and the NCAA West Regional.

TEAM SCORES
1 Texas A&M           299-303-295--897 +33 
2 Arizona,            298-303-298--899 +35 
3 Brigham Young       305-313-299--917 +53 
4 Rollins College     306-302-313--921 +57 
5 Colorado State      318-300-306--924 +60 
6 Ohio State          316-302-314--932 +68 
7 Hawaii              313-314-308--935 +71 
8 Birmingham Southern 318-306-315--939 +75 
9 Texas El Paso       318-304-321--943 +79 
10 Washington         315-319-320--954 +90 
11 Osaka Gakuin       328-321-321--970 +106 
12 Weber State        323-319-335--977 +113 
13 Hawaii-Hilo        336-337-339--1012 +148
BYU INDIVIDUAL SCORES
T9      Rachel Newren         76-79-72--227  +11
T12     Danielle von Arnim    78-78-72--228  +12 
16      Natalia Jimenez       76-79-75--230  +14 
T26     Daphne Vines          75-78-81--234  +18 
T30     Hannah Summerhays     78-79-80--237  +21*
T42     Juli Erekson          81-78-80--239  +23
T45     Alexis Edwards        79-81-80--240  +24* 
T48     Ashley Childers       80-82-79--241  +25* 
*competed as an individual