8 May 2000CONTACT: Stew Salowitz, 309-556-3206
and/or head coach Kathy Niepagen, 309-827-3411
IWU Makes Division III Women's Golf Tournament
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- The Illinois Wesleyan University women's golf team will have "home course" advantage at next week's first NCAA Division III national championships.
IWU, the host school of the event, was one of 10 teams, two from each of five regions, selected to participate in the tourney, which runs from Tuesday, May 16 to Friday, May 19, at Bloomington's Prairie Vista Golf Course.
Also chosen by the national committee today was Methodist College of Fayetteville, N.C., the defending national champion of the combined Division II and III tournament. Methodist won eight of the 10 national small college titles in the 1990s.
Prior to this year, Division II and III competed in the same tournament. The championships will consist of both team and individual competition conducted concurrently. All participants will compete throughout the entire 72 holes of competition. In the team competition, the low four scores for each team will count in each day's total score.
Joining Illinois Wesleyan from Region 3 is Knox College, while Baldwin-Wallace joins Methodist as the Region 1 teams. Rhodes College of Memphis, Tenn., and Southwestern University of Georgetown, Texas, come from Region 2; Concordia College of Moorhead, Minn., and Simpson College of Indianola, Iowa, represent Region 4; and Linfield and Hardin-Simmons University of Abilene, Texas, are from Region 5.
In addition to the 50 players from the 10 teams, 10 individuals were also selected to compete in the tournament. They are, with school (region): Meghann Glass, Mount Union (1); Ellen Colenbrander, Hope (2); Patricia Kuehner, Franklin (2); Nancy Nicely, DePauw (2); Stephanie Feeney, Millikin (3); Kallie Daly, Augustana (3); Christy Huegerich, Wisconsin-Whitewater (3); Debbie Zorn, Buena Vista (4); Caroline Hellmark, Luther (4); and Monica Blank, McMurry (5).
Playing for Illinois Wesleyan will be senior Jodi Smallenberger (Morton HS), junior Kelly Kostock (Elgin, Burlington Central HS); sophomores Amy Cline (Decatur, Eisenhower HS) and Melissa McMahon (Minier, Stanford Olympia HS), freshman Gail Nelson (Frankfort, Lincoln-Way HS).
Teams will come to Bloomington this weekend and will have the opportunity to play practice rounds Sunday and Monday at Prairie Vista. There will be a long-driving contest and a putting contest for the competitors on Monday, May 15, from 1 to 4 p.m., sponsored by the National Golf Coaches Association.
Admission for the contests and for all days of the tournament is free.