IWU Women’s Golf Chosen for NCAA Division III Tournament

May 1, 2007

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — For the fifth time overall and the third consecutive season, the Illinois Wesleyan women’s golf team has been selected to play in the NCAA Division III national championships.
The tournament is May 8-11 at the Mission Inn Golf and Tennis Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla., and includes 20 teams and 11 individuals. Oglethorpe University and the Central Florida Sports Commission will serve as hosts.

Competing for Illinois Wesleyan will be senior Andrea Johanns (Farmer City, Blue Ridge HS), juniors Taylor Paskell (Phoenix, Ariz., Desert Vista HS) and Kristi Katz (Park Ridge, Maine South HS), sophomore Nicole Spear (Naperville, Central HS) and freshman Alessandra Bollero (Palm Beach, Fla., Cardinal Newman HS).
Paskell has the lowest scoring average on the team at 79.4 strokes in 20 rounds, followed by Katz (82.3), Johanns (83.0), Spear (83.7) and Bollero (85.4). Paskell was the 2004 and 2006 medalist in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin meet and Johanns was the medalist in 2005 as IWU has won the last five conference tourneys.

In previous Division III national tourneys, IWU was sixth in both 2006 and 2000, 10th in 2002 and eighth in 2005.
In 2006, the Titans finished with a four-day total of 1369 as. Paskell finished seventh (the lowest ever for an IWU national competitor) with a four-day 317 total. Paskell finished 17th in the 2005 national tourney.
Methodist (N.C.) won its ninth straight women's title with a team score of 1240 and their golfer, Charlotte Williams, was the individual medalist with a 308 score.

The championships consist of both team and individual competition conducted concurrently. The tournament consists of 72 holes of play over four days of competition. In the team competition, the low four scores from each team for each day will count in the team’s total score.
Eleven conferences were granted automatic qualification and the remaining nine teams were selected on an at-large basis from conferences and the remaining independent institutions.
Eleven individuals, not from selected teams, also were selected for the championships.
In addition to IWU and defending champion Methodist, the other selected teams are Gustavus Adolphus, U. of St. Thomas (Minn.), Middlebury, DePauw, Williams, Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Southwestern U. (Texas), Simpson, Olivet, Allegheny, Amherst, Illinois College, U. of Puget Sound, Vassar, California-Santa Cruz, Manchester, Texas Lutheran and Ohio Northern.
The individual players are Katie Tewell, Franklin College; Jennifer Young, Wisconsin-Oshkosh; Karla Leon, Macalester; Kristi Martin, Hardin-Simmons; Julia Gates, Oglethorpe; Andrea Schiltz, Wartburg; Jennifer Stork, Buena Vista; Jessica Urban and Susie Lewis, Wisconsin-Stevens Point; Kassie Wells, Carleton; and Leslie Wheeler, Linfield.

CONTACT: Stew Salowitz, 309-556-3206