Women place 10th in Invitational

By Rhonda Gilmer

Daily Sports Writer

The Michigan women's golf team experienced its own version of the good, the bad, and the ugly when it competed in the Indiana Invitational this past weekend.

First, the good -- the Wolverines were able to place 10th overall. Saturday they shot a team total of 337, and they followed it up with a 325 yesterday.

Indiana, which hosted the event, won the tournament by shooting a 314 on Saturday and a 323 yesterday.

"I was happy about today's play even though we could have done better," Michigan coach Kathy Teichert said.

Next, the bad -- Courtney Reno and Jennifer Baumann were both disqualified in the first round due to a mixup on their scorecards.

In spite of these setbacks, the Wolverines continued to play and came back strong.

"Yesterday's round put us in a hole, but today we played much better," Teichert said.

Kim Benedict led the way for the Wolverines, firing an 83 on Saturday and a 76 yesterday.

She finished the weekend tied for seventh with a two-round total of 159.

Bess Bowers placed 33rd in the tournament, shooting 81-86 for a total of 167.

Meanwhile, Misia Lemanski tied for 45th with a 169, and Trish Watkins finished with a tie for 58th at 172.

Finally, the ugly -- the sudden outbreak of colder weather caused the Wolverines to struggle, which left the team disappointed with its overall showing.

Due to high winds and pouring rain, the Wolverines were constantly inundated with problems.

The course at Indiana University was so soaked from the precipitation that the tournament had to be shortened from 54 holes to 36.

"We played under some extreme weather conditions," Teichert said.

"I thought the overall tournament was really pretty tough."

Next week, the Wolverines will compete at the Hawkeye Invitational in Iowa City. This will be their last event before the Big Ten Championships from April 28-30.