TEAM LEADERBOARD
INDIVIDUAL LEADERBOARD
NINETY-SIX, S.C. – Despite bettering their opening round total by 11 strokes and carding their lowest conference championship score in school history, the Radford women's golf team dropped to fourth at the 2009 Big South Championships Tuesday.
The 54-hole event hosted by High Point University is being played on the par 72, 5,956-yard Patriot Club layout.
Radford, which entered the second round just five strokes off the pace in second place, will begin tomorrow's final round 18 strokes out of first. The Highlanders are four swings back of Winthrop and eight behind second-place Charleston Southern. Coastal Carolina (611) sits atop the team standings following a tournament-low 296.
Prior to this afternoon's round, the Highlanders' lowest team total in the Big South Championships was 313, which was recorded seven years ago.
Megan Leineweber (Salisbury, Md./Parkside) is tied for sixth at 11-over (77-78), while freshman Jade Okamoto (Huntington Beach, Calif./Marina) continued her strong play with another 78 to sit just one behind Leineweber alone in eighth.
Hannah Coles (Birmingham, England/The Coleshill School), who opened with a disappointing 85, bounced back with a four-over 76 to move into a tie for 15th place. Not only did the all-conference selection improve on her first round total by nine shots, she jumped 12 spots in the standings.
Like Coles, Brittany Hine (Elkton, Va.) moved up the individual leaderboard thanks to a five-over 77. Hine began the day in a tie for 32nd before climbing past 11 golfers into 21st.
Also competing for Radford is Maggie Watts (Paris, Ky./Paris), who also sits inside the Top-20 in a tie for 19th at 163 (80-83).
In search of their first league title in school history, the Highlanders have never finished higher than fourth in the championship.
Coastal Carolina's Aruka Felgueroso fired the day's lowest round to extend her lead over Olivia Higgins of Charleston Southern by three shots. Felgueroso (-2) and Higgins (+1), who were named Co-Golfers of the Year Monday evening, hold the top-two spots on the individual leaderboard.
The 2009 Big South Champions will receive the league's automatic berth to the NCAA Regionals.
Round three of the three-day event will begin Wednesday morning at 8 a.m.
