Shocker Women's Golf 2022-23 Season

[1972Shocker]

I'm not sure what to take from this. A good final round but an eh kind of weekend?.

I think what you take from it is that consistency and lack of depth continue to be issues for the Shocker women's golf program. Mackenzie, Mar and Kenni were not too bad but each of them had one round that got away form them a little. As you say Brooklyn and Sarah were of no help at all.

I expected them to improve their finish over the previous tournament but that was mostly a function of the field. That fact that we finished behind Missouri State, Bradley and Loyola indicates we haven't really improved our talent from our Valley days, Perhaps it has even declined somewhat. Unfortunately, that will keep us at the bottom of the AAC.

At this point the primary value of the women's golf program is to insure compliance with Title IX requirements and perhaps NCAA D-1 Membership requirements.

[SubGod22]

Didn't want to create a new thread.

Go Shockers - Takahashi to Join Wichita State Golf Program

WICHITA, Kan. – Wichita State women's golf head coach Tom McCurdy announced the addition of Anna Takahashi to the program for the 2023-24 season.

A transfer from Sam Houston State, Takahashi, spent the last four seasons in the Bearkats' program, and will have one season of eligibility at Wichita State.

"Anna is going to be a great fit in our golf program," McCurdy said. "She has some fantastic tournament history and was one of the top junior golfers in Texas. With three graduating seniors, we really needed to add a player who has solid collegiate experience and maturity to help our program."

The Grapevine, Texas, native finished the 2021-22 campaign with a 76.84 stroke average in 11 events. She had three top 10 finishes, highlighted by a tie for third at the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational. Takahashi carded a season low round of 67 at the USA Intercollegiate where she placed sixth. In 2020-21, she competed in five tournaments, including individual medalist honors at the Bearkat Invitational.

Sounds like she should offers some solid senior leadership and hopefully some consistently respectable finishes next year. Though I don't get the feeling that she's going to be someone who lights it up.

But then again, I know very little about golf other than how bad I am at it.

[1972Shocker]

Sounds like she should offers some solid senior leadership and hopefully some consistently respectable finishes next year. Though I don't get the feeling that she's going to be someone who lights it up.

Not sure what her stroke average is this year as that is not available on the SHS website. But her 76.84 stroke average would be 4th best on this year's Shocker team (so far) and is right around the averages of the Shockers 2 5th-year seniors, Megan Lucas (76.62) and Kenni Henson (76.80).

I think you are correct that she doesn't appear that she will move the needle very much, if any.

What we really need is the infusion of better young talent like current freshman Mackenzie Wilson.

However, not sure that is something that is in the cards for WSU women's golf. So I see the program continuing to be one that will not be very competitive in the AAC but one that will continue to attract quality STUDENT-athletes and fill Title IX and NCAA D-1 membership requirements.

I am not sure who the 3rd graduating senior is that HCTC referred to. I am guessing that is Mar Vidal, from Barcelona Spain, who is listed on the roster as a junior but is in her 4th year with the program. Mar has played in all 8 fall and spring events (24 rounds) for the Shockers this year with a stroke average of 77.42.

The only other Shocker to play in all 24 rounds this year is freshman Mackenzie Wilson who leads the Shocks with a stroke average of 75.04.

[1972Shocker]

The Shockers opened play today in the 2023 AAC Women's Golf Championship. The field consists of 10 of the AAC schools with only Temple not fielding a women's golf team. Last year the Shockers finished 9th, 8 shots ahead of Cincinnati and 13 shots behind 8th place ECU.

After round one the Shocks are in familiar territory sitting in 9th place at 15-over par which is 27 shots behind leader SMU. However the the bottom 4 teams are all packed pretty tightly with Tulane at 13-over, Cincinnati at 14-over and last place Memphis at 16-over.

Sr. Kenni Henson had a vey steady 1-over par 73 as she recorded 15 pars, 1 birdie and 2 bogeys. Fr. Mackenzie Wilson matched Kenni's score but her round proceeded a little differently as she booked 7 pars, 5 birdies and 6 bogeys. But both rounds count the same.

Jr.Mar Vidal followed with a 4-over 76.

However, Fr. Brooklyn Benn and Sr. Megan Lucas playing in the #3 and #5 spots in the lineup both struggled today. Megan shot 9-over 81 and Brooklyn had the throw away score at 11-over 83. Megan had a triple bogey and a double bogey that kind of wrecked her round. Had she just bogeyed those 2 holes the Shocks would be at 12-over as a team and in 7th place.

Looks like the tournament evenly between an upper division and a lower division. The top 5 teams are all under par ranging from 12-under to 1-under. 4 of the 5 top team are ranked with SMU #26, Tulsa #37, Houston #39 and UCF at #19. The bottom 5 teams have scores ranging from 8-over to 16-over.

Scoreboard: https://results.golfstat.com/public/...team&tid=27651

Hopefully, the Shocks can find 4 decent scores tomorrow and maybe move up a little bit.

[1972Shocker]

Megan Lucas rebounded from her 9-over 81 in round 1 to lead teh Shocks in round 2 with an even par the included 12 pars, 3 birdies and 3 bogeys. Mackenzie Wilson at 2-over and Kenni Henson at 3-over weren't quite as good as yesterday but not too bad. Mar Vidal booked a 2nd straight 4-over 76. Brooklyn Benn struggled again today and again had the throw away score at 10-over 82.

So the Shocks improved their team score by 6 strokes from Day 1 and moved up to 7th from 9th. However, they are 17 strokes behind 6th place ECU so they aren't moving up any.

Still a battle to avoid a last place finish with Cincy 1 shot back of the Shocks, Tulane 2 shots back and Memphis 6 shots back.

https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=27651

[SubGod22]

Go Shockers - Shockers' Season Ends at AAC Championship

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. - Wichita State women's golf concluded its 2022-23 season Wednesday afternoon after the final round of the American Athletic Conference Championship.

Wichita State finished the three-day tournament in 10th with a total score of 46-over par, 910. SMU ran away with the team title at 25-under par, 839.

Seniors Kenni Henson and Megan Lucas competed in their final collegiate tournament, tying for 30th and 39th, respectively. Henson was the top finisher for Wichita State, carding an 8-over par, 224. Lucas finished five strokes back at 13-over par, 229. Her second round score of 72 was one stroke off a career low round.

Sandwiched in between Henson and Lucas was Mackenzie Wilson at 10-over par and tied for 36th.

Mar Vidal tied for 42nd and Brooklyn Benn placed 49th, rounding out the Shocker lineup in Florida.

Results
T30. Kenni Henson: 73-75-76--224 (+8)
T36. Mackenzie Wilson: 73-74-79--226 (+10)
39. Megan Lucas: 81-72-76--229 (+13)
T42. Mar Vidal: 76-76-79--231 (+15)
49. Brooklyn Benn: 83-82-85--250 (+34)

Not a strong finish at all. Mackenzie shows some promise, but...

[1972Shocker]

The Shockers posted the worst team score of any round in the final round today at 22-over par to finish in 10th place (last) 5 strokes behind 9th place Cincinnati. The Shocks finished 76 strokes back of the winner SMU who admittedly played lights out.

As you can see the Shockers final round scores were 76+76+79+79 = 310 (+22 to par). Freshman Brooklyn Benn continued to struggle and had the throw away score again at 13-over 85. Brooklyn finished dead last individually and was 14 strokes behind her closest competitor.

Now 85 would have been a good score for me back when I played golf a every now and then on weekends, but won't do much at the collegiate level.

Mackenzie does show promise for a freshman but she still finished in 36th place individually. The other 2 Shockers in the top 40, Kenni and Megan, have completed their eligibility.

I know these are fine young ladies and good students and are doing the very best but our golf program is simply not competitive in the AAC. Even when we had Taryn Torgerson, who won medalist honors as a senior at the AAC Championships and is perhaps the Shocker GOAT when it comes to women's golf, the Shocks only managed to finish 6th. I still say to swap it out for Sand/Beach Volleyball if Lambo is okay with that, and the last I heard from him on the subject was that he was. Although that was before Shannon's injury and health problems.

[WuDrWu]

Nice to see Kate Tilma back in Wichita.

Probably been covered before but she is the daughter of former WSU baseball player Tommy Tilma and is her mom Cathy Stevens, daughter of Johnny Stevens? Wasn't Cathy the golf coach at WSU at one point or is my mind fried?

[1972Shocker]

Nice to see Kate Tilma back in Wichita.

Probably been covered before but she is the daughter of former WSU baseball player Tommy Tilma and is her mom Cathy Stevens, daughter of Johnny Stevens? Wasn't Cathy the golf coach at WSU at one point or is my mind fried?

I think that is correct. Cathy was head coach at WSU from 1993-98. She was just out of college having led OU to the Big Eight championship in 1991 in which she won medalist honors.

The Stevens family is pretty much golfing royalty in Wichita and Kansas. Kate's grandmother, Margie (Johnny's wife of 59 years) passed away this past April 1st.

Wichita Native Tilma Signs with Wichita State Golf

https://goshockers.com/news/2023/5/10/womens-golf-wichita-native-tilma-signs-with-wichita-state-golf.aspx

Hopefully, Kate will carry on the family tradition of golfing excellence as a Shocker legacy. She will be in the same class as Shocker freshman Mackenzie Wilson. Her stroke average as a freshman a K-State this past season was a pretty pedestrian 78.56 but she only played in 3 events (9 rounds) so a pretty small sample size. That would put her at 3rd among returning Shockers, Sophomore to be Mackenzie Wilson (74.90) and Senior to be Mar Vidal (77.13). Note that both Mackenzie and Mar played in 10 events (30 rounds) this past season. So hopefully Kate's stroke average will come down as her work load increases. Kate did have a low round of 70 this past spring season matching the Shockers low round 70 by Wilson.

[WuDrWu]

The Stevens family is pretty much golfing royalty in Wichita and Kansas. Kate's grandmother, Margie (Johnny's wife of 59 years) passed away this past April 1st.

Margie was a wonderful and incredibly kind person. Growing up, Margie was one of those adults that absolutely made an impact on you every time you saw her. Truly one of the greats.

[RoyalShock]

Back in the 80s wasn't there also a Stevens who was one of the top junior tennis players in the region? Brett maybe?

[SubGod22]