2017-18 Women's Golf All-Conference Team (PDF)
INDIANAPOLIS – A select group of 11 student-athletes have been officially named, through merit of performance or coaches vote, to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Golf All-Conference Team.
The top finishers, including ties, all were recognized at the conclusion of the Great Midwest Championship at Four Bridges Country Club. An additional five were determined as continued postseason play concluded at the East Super Regional in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Findlay’s conference championship winning team and Trevecca’s Rachael McMahan each represented the Great Midwest for the super regional that ran from May 7-9.
Findlay junior Makenzie Torres emerged from the talented women’s field to earn a spot in the NCAA Championships held May 16-19 at Bay Oaks Country Club in Houston, Texas.
Torres was the Great Midwest Championship medalist and was also selected by the coaches as the overall Great Midwest Player of the Year for her work on the links in 2017-18. She helped the Oilers to a fourth-place team finish at the super regional with 12 programs in the mix.
As the last team to miss the nationals cut, Findlay had a team score of 941 over three days (316-313-312) as UIndy, Grand Valley State and Missouri-St. Louis all advanced to Houston. Torres finished seventh overall with a three-round score of 223 (74-76-73) in a field 66 student-athletes.
Torres led the Great Midwest with a single-season record scoring average of 75.25 to break the record previously held by Trevecca NCAA qualifier and multiple conference medalist Alexa Rippy (75.80 in 2015-16).
Going into the finals at the NCAA Championships, Torres has logged 25.5 rounds in 12 different events. She also has nine top-10 finishes with a pair of medalist victories and compiled a 719-107 win-loss record against opponents head-to-head (.870). Torres also had four rounds of under par, including a 70 (-2) in the first round of the UIS Spring Invitational.
Torres joins Rippy as the only student-athletes in conference history to advance to the NCAA Championship finals.
Joining Torres on the all-conference team were many of her Oiler teammates, including Samantha Hatter, Meredith Wipper, Kristina Kniesly and Samantha Kellstrom. Kniesly earned top billing for Great Midwest Freshman of the Year as she finished fourth in the league in scoring average and registered five top-10 finishes.
The Great Midwest Coach of the Year was Findlay’s Dominic Guarnieri as his program snapped a five-year title run by Trevecca. The Oilers led all teams in scoring average with another team conference record (308.5) by a margin of almost 19 strokes and set the single-round conference standard with a 287 at the UIS Spring Invitational.
The Oilers finished 2017-18 with five team titles at the Great Midwest Fall Invitational, Dayton Fall Invitational, Great Midwest Championship, UIS Spring Invitational and Cav Classic vs. Walsh.