Pride women's golf splits squad in final tune ups before conference

CORALVILLE, Iowa - With the full Clarke University women's golf team in action over the previous three days, the Pride women's reserve team played two rounds on Sunday and Monday at The Meadows Golf Course for the Loras Spring Invitational with the varsity unit playing at Brown Deer Golf Course for the Mount Mercy Spring Invitational on Monday and Tuesday.

The four-person reserve team of Jessi Wagner, Maya England, Caley McKinney, and Irene Metaxas shot a first round 447 on Sunday before improving on their score by 24 strokes to post a 423 on Monday, led by Wagner's back-to-back rounds of 98 and 99 to produce a 197 for 16th place.

England was able to finish in 20th place in the individual field, following up a first round 106 with a 98 of her own for a 204 while McKinney scored a 230 and Metaxas finished at 239 to close out CU's scoring at The Meadows.

Down in Coralville, the varsity team of Amalia Ortega, Holly Elliott, Rose Halle, Sydney Minyen, and Rose McCartney also was able to improve their team scoring by 10 strokes from an opening-round 340 to a 330 to finish in third place with a total two-round score 670.

Leading the way for the Pride for the second-straight tournament was Ortega, who posted a fifth place final score of 158 with a two-stroke improvement from Monday to Tuesday, going from 80 to 78 to jump up one spot on the individual leaderboard and post that top-five finish.

Just behind Ortega's fifth place, Elliott finished in ninth place with a two-round total of 165 after posting an 84 on Monday followed by an 81 on Tuesday while Halle finished at 173, Minyen produced a 174, and McCartney scored a final total of 180.

Pride women's golf will now spend the rest of the month of April preparing for the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championship that will take place on May 4-5 in Smithville, Mo. at the Paradise Point Outlaw Course.