KWU Athletics
Kansas Wesleyan's Aiden Richmond wasn't about to let her last opportunity to play well in a tournament on her home golf course slip away.
Richmond shot a 5-over-par 77 and finished third with an 80-77—157 total in the Central Plains Invitational on Tuesday at Salina Country Club. She was one stroke behind runner-up Ida Lihufvdh of Bethany (78-78—156) and 13 strokes in back of individual champion Cristina Galban of Southwestern Christian (74-71—145).
KWU was second as a team with a 324-321—645 total, four shots behind Southwestern Christian (326-315—641) and six strokes better than third-place finisher Bethany (322-329—651).
"It was really fun and I was happy about it," Richmond said. "This is my senior year and last home tournament and I feel like I made it the best home tournament for me personally."
Richmond said she's approaches everything with a sense of urgency this year.
"I feel like that with every tournament, in everything we do in golf this will be the last time I get to do that and I better make the most of it," she said.
Richmond was fifth after Monday's first 18 holes but moved up during the final 18 holes.
"My drives, hitting those fairways, my irons were working pretty well," she said. "A couple of unlucky shots but my swing overall was just hitting well. Definitely if some putts would have dropped it would have been a little bit better but I'm happy with how I played."
Richmond said the greens Tuesday were different from Monday and made things interesting.
"The greens were tough," she said. "(Monday) the (balls) were rolling much differently than today in my opinion. Working with slower greens yesterday versus they were rolling a lot more today, it was definitely something to get used to."
KWU coach Coleman Houk said Richmond is playing well of late.
"She's really turned it on here the last four weeks," he said. "She was top three in Wichita (Crestview Fall Invitational) and had a phenomenal outing last week so we knew she was playing great coming in. It's exciting to see what she's going to do in (Kansas Conference) Match Play (next week). She's a notoriously good match play player."
Houk said her improvement isn't an accident.
"She's putting in the time, as much if not more than anybody out here," he said. "She stays after practice; we see her out here on weekends just putting in the work and it showed today."
Corey Mein (SR/Liberal, Kan.) also placed in the top 10 for Wesleyan tying for seventh with a 79-84—163 score. Abby Donovan (SO/Concordia, Kan.) was 14th (82-83—165); Hannah Hart (JR/Ventura, Calif.) and Chaney Littell (FR/Winfield, Kan.) were among five golfers tied for 15th at 167, Hart shooting 90-77 and Littell 83-84. Thalia Ramirez (JR/Olathe, Kan.) tied for 22nd (85-85—170); Skylar Smallwood (FR/Henryetta, Okla.) tied for 25th (89-84—173); Morgan McReynolds (FR/La Junta, Colo.) tied for 35th (88-92—180); Abby Day (FR/Pryor, Okla.) was 38th (94-90—184) and Vanessa Sexton (SO/Burleson, Texas) tied for 39th (93-93—186).
"We played strong for two rounds," Houk said of his team. "Southwestern Christian is a super strong team and would have loved to pick up that win. But we'll move on to next week's match play and will probably be the one seed on both sides."
The KCAC Match Play event will be Oct. 3-4 at Mariah Hills Golf Course in Dodge City.