Banding Together – Mside fights to finish at Lila Frommelt tourney

UNION CO., S.D. – A run of six straight rounds atop a team leaderboard concluded Saturday, Sept. 18.

Morningside University head women's golf coach Nick Wanderscheid and his 2021-22 Mustangs made the most of it, though. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics' No. 9-ranked program gave junior college power Iowa Western Community College all they could handle over the final 18 at Two Rivers Golf Course. When the two-day Briar Cliff University Lila Frommelt Invitational ended, the Reivers' red-hot 294 eclipsed Mside's 317 and allowed them move into the team championship (596-606).

 "I was very proud of the players' attitudes all day in the face of some adversity," Wanderscheid noted. "In golf and life, it doesn't always go the way we have planned and being able to stay positive and deal with it is the true judge of character."

The trio of seniors Laia Badosa (Girona, Spain) and Maria Zorrilla (Monterrey, Mexico) and sophomore Sofia Castelan (Queretaro, Mexico) led the tenacious charge. Badosa went 70-75 for a 145 that tied her for second, Castelan carded a 36-hole 148 to tie for fifth, and Zorrilla's 151 placed her sixth.

"Iowa Western has a great team, and they played a great round Saturday with three players ending in the first five," Wanderscheid said. "We fought hard to hang in there with them. We'll learn from it and move on to the next one." 

Morningside is back in action, concluding its pre-Great Plains Athletic Conference Fall Section Championship slate Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 20 and 21, at the Northwest Iowa Invitational.