CARMEL, Ind. – After the first round of the Lady Jaguar Invitational the IUPUI women’s golf team sits in fourth, shooting 303 (+15) on Saturday (Apr. 13). Seniors Shelby Busker and Annaliese Fox led the way, carding even-par rounds of 72, just one shot off the lead held by Ball State’s Sabrina Langerak. IUPUI follows closely behind Ball State, Butler and Ohio who sit first, second and third, respectively.
The Jaguars got off to a hot start with Annaliese Fox opening her round with a birdie and Shelby Busker and Madeline Pape both birdying the par-5 second to jump out to an early lead.
Following the birdie on two, Busker tallied back-to-back bogeys to move to 1-over through four. The senior quickly returned to even-par after a three on the par-4 fifth. Fox was steady after the opening hole birdie, carding six straight pars before birdying the par-5 eighth. She would par the final hole of her opening nine, making the turn at 2-under to hold a one-shot lead.
Like her opening nine, Busker began the back nine with a bang, going 2-under through her first three holes to move to second on the leaderboard and propel the Jags to second place. She dropped a shot at the difficult par-4 thirteenth. Busker then recorded four pars in a row before giving back a shot on the final hole of the day to finish even-par.
“It felt really good to hit some solid shots and to grind out the holes I needed to,” stated Busker after the round. Busker will be focused on “coming in with a good mindset and not getting worked up about the wind and potential conditions” in her final round.
Fox’s solid play bled into the back nine, where she began with three straight pars. After a bogey on 13, the senior birdied the next to get back to 2-under. Following two more pars, Fox carded back-to-back bogeys to close out her round and drop to even-par. Despite the disappointing finishes for Busker and Fox, the two are in a tie for second place with Butler’s Ashley Frietas heading into the final round.
“Fairways and greens really helped me out today,” Fox exclaimed. “I think I hit 16 (of 18) greens and that was what helped me out the best.”
Unlike her teammates, Yanah Rolston was slow out of the gates, carding four bogeys in her opening nine. However, she maintained her composure to register eight pars and a single bogey to finish 5-over.
After her birdie at hole two, Pape struggled to get any momentum, shooting a 40 (4-over) in her opening nine. The back nine featured similar results for the senior, carding a 42 to finish 10-over and round out the scoring for the Jags.
Playing as individuals, Reagan Sohn and Sydni Zebrauskas also got off to quick starts, birdying number one to jump out to an early lead. Both would give two shots back in their opening nine to finish 1-over. Sohn was one of many who bogeyed the thirteenth, but she quickly got the shot back by birdying the next. After three pars, Sohn recorded a bogey at the last to finish with a 2-over 74—tying her career low round—and inside the top 10. Zebrauskas stumbled at the start of the back nine, shooting 4-over in the first two holes. She didn’t let the scores affect her, finishing the round with six pars and one bogey to end with a 78—her career low round.
“I’m very proud of the girls today,” said head coach Jamie Broce. “We’ve had a very balanced team in general. We had two players play really well today and we had a few players that feel like they probably left a few shots out there. We’ve been practicing this afternoon and we all have the right attitudes, so I’m excited for tomorrow and I think we can get some momentum heading into conference.”
