At the 2012 Branch Law Firm/Dick McGuire Invitational in Albequerque, N.M., CU junior golfer Jenny Coleman surged to an individual victory.
Coleman had a 2-under par lead going into Tuesday’s final round at the UNM Championship Course, and by the end of the day she had turned that into an eight-stroke win over her closest competitor, Rachel Rohanna of Oklahoma State University. That margin of victory is a CU school record.
Coleman’s 5-under par 68 on the day, a career-best round, included six birdies and two bogeys. That score gave her an 11-under par 208 for the entire tournament, the best 54-hole score in school history by one stroke.
Coleman also became one of just six CU women’s golfers to earn medalist honors, and one of eight to have earned an individual overall victory. She is also just the third to score under par in all three rounds, joining former CU standouts Emily Childs and Emily Talley.
Coleman’s win had the potential to put CU in the top spot as a team, but less than perfect performances by her teammates dropped the Buffs into eighth overall with a cumulative score of 22-over par 898.
The second-best CU finisher was freshman Allie Zech, who was competing individually; her 5-over par 78 in the final round put her in a tie for 35th place overall. Freshman Megan Haase, who shot a 1-over par 74 in the final round, tied for 39th overall. Three final-round scores in the 80s, by junior Kristin Coleman and freshmen Alexis Keating and Jamie Oleksiew, kept the Buffs from placing higher in the overall team standings.
Iowa State University won the tournament, with the University of California Davis and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas taking second and third. The competition was close, as six different teams led at various points over the two day stretch.
The Buffs do not play again until Oct. 1-2 at the Windy City Classic, hosted by Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. The tournament marks the first of three scheduled for the month of October.
Contact CU Independent Sports Editor Caryn Maconi at Caryn.maconi@colorado.edu.
