Special to the News

05/21 at 09:50 PM

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Junior Cydney Clanton turned in the lowest round in Auburn NCAA Championship history, as she shot a 66 final round, posting a 7-under 281, four-day total and tying for third in the 2010 NCAA Championship.

The fourth-ranked Auburn women’s golf team posted an 11-over round in the final day of competition, bringing the team to a 31-over-par tournament total and trying for 11th to close the 2009-10 season.

The Tigers finished the tournament with a four-day total 1,183, which ranks as the second-lowest final score in Auburn’s history at the NCAA
Championship when played at 72 holes.

The NCAA Championship is a 72-hole stroke play event hosted by the University of North Carolina-Wilmington at the Country Club of Landfall.

Starting the day from the No. 10 tee, the team held strong at 3-over-par on the first nine. However, the Tigers struggled to close out the day, posting an 8-over on the final nine holes of the season.

“Great players stand up when they are supposed to and (Clanton) made a big, big run for it,” Auburn head coach Kim Evans said. “Her intention was to win this golf tournament and she went after it. I don’t know if she will get NCAA Player of the Year, but she is one of the top two or three in the nation, so at least she gave herself a chance today and went after it. I could not be prouder of her.

“Everything was going right for her today, she just put together a gameplan. You could tell this morning she was ready to play, she could not get out here quick enough. She left a lot out there all three days and she finally got one really good one.”

The junior was flawless on the day, recording birdies on six of her first 10 holes en route to a bogey-free round. With the team starting on the
No. 10 tee, Clanton hit her stride on Nos. 14, 15 and 16, carding three-consecutive birdies to take her to 4-under on the day. After finding her final birdie on No. 1, Clanton rode a clean scorecard to the finish.

“I made a lot of putts on the front nine and struck the ball really well, and that gave me a lot of opportunities to make putts,” Clanton noted. “I kept my patience and did not get ahead of myself, just taking it one shot at a time, but putting was the deal-breaker for me today.”

Clanton’s 6-under round is the lowest in Auburn’s history at the NCAA Championship, besting the previous record by two strokes. She also tops the Auburn record books with her 281 tournament-total, which ranks as the lowest final score in Auburn’s NCAA Championships history when playing at 72 holes. Her tie for third is the second-best individual finish in school history at the Championship, falling only to Danielle Downey’s
second-place tie in 2002.

Senior Candace Schepperle posted a 6-over final round, bringing her tournament total to an 8-over-par 296. The Birmingham native finished in a tie for 43rd.

Sophomore Patricia Sanz carded a 5-over final round to finish the tournament at 16-over par and tied for 86th, while fellow sophomore Haley Wilson posted a 6-over in the round to finish at 14-over-par and tied for 76th. Freshman Carlie Yadloczky hit 8-over-par on the day, bringing the Auburn newcomer to a 29-over 317 tournament total. Yadloczky finished in 120th.

The Auburn squad had only two players with NCAA Championship experience, with Clanton and Schepperle being the only veterans.

“I would like to think that we could come here and play without experience and do the job, but we obviously needed it,” Evans stated. “We are going to take it that next year we have that experience and hopefully they will work hard and get this going.”

Though experience was a factor in this year’s event, Evans mentioned that the team will be ready for another run at the title next year.

“We just never could get it going,” Evans said. “We just have to go to the drawing board. This crew, all but Candace, return next year, and we have to get stronger.”

Taking the title at the NCAA Championship was Purdue with a 1-over-par 1,153. Despite a 7-over final-round performance, the Boilermakers held off second-place Southern California to take the Championship. The Trojans (1,154) took second, with Southeastern Conference member
Alabama (1,157) placing third. Arizona State (1,161) and Arizona (1,166) took fourth and fifth, respectively.

In the individual race, Oklahoma State’s Caroline Hedwall took top honors, finishing at 12-under-par for the tournament after a 4-under final day.
Her four consecutive under-par rounds proved to be unstoppable, as she shot 70-70-68-68 to finish at 276.

Arizona State’s Jennifer Johnson took second place with an 8-under 280, while Maude-Aimee LeBlanc of Purdue tied Auburn’s Clanton for third at 7-under-par. Megan McChrystal of LSU and Jennifer Song of Southern California tied for fifth with 5-under tournament totals.

Men’s golf tied for 6th at South Central Regional
BRYAN, Texas—The Auburn men’s golf team inched closer and moved into a tie for sixth with No. 22 North Florida at 2-over par 578 after the NCAA South Central Regional second round at the Traditions Club on Friday.

Sophomore Will McCurdy recorded the Tigers’ second straight hole-in-one in back-to-back days en route to a 2-under 70.

No. 3 and host Texas A&M shot even par and is leading with an 11-under par 565, one shot ahead of No. 10 Texas Tech (284-566) and three better than No. 25 TCU (291-568). There are six teams within seven shots of the five-team cutline to advance to the NCAA Championship.

Wichita State is in fourth at 3-under 573 and is a shot ahead of Pepperdine (288-574), Auburn (290-578), No. 22 North Florida (298-578), Tulsa (288-580) and Baylor (289-580). Rice is in 10th at 284-583 followed by No. 16 Georgia (291-585), Georgetown (299-602), North Carolina (311-612) and Jackson State (348-673).

The top five teams and top individual not on those teams qualify for the 113th NCAA Men’s Golf Championship at The Honors Course in Chattanooga, Tenn., June 1-6.

“We have put ourselves in position and are right in the thick of things,” said Auburn head coach Nick Clinard. “We are playing some great holes while making a few mental mistakes here and there that will cost us when it comes down to the wire. We need a full team effort and go out and finish strong.”

Cole Moreland, who made a hole-in-one on the par-3 ninth hole in Thursday’s first round, and McCurdy are both tied for 12th at 2-under par.
Moreland shot a 73 after a first round 69, while McCurdy fired a second round 70. Sophomore John Stembridge is tied for 28th at 76—147, while freshman David Zickler is tied for 51st with a 75—151 and sophomore Kyle Kopsick shot an even par 72 after a first round 80 to move into a tie
for 55th.

McCurdy aced the par-3, 189-yard 16th hole with a 5-iron for his third hole-in-one overall, but his first in competition.

“I was kind of speechless, and my heart was beating really fast,” said McCurdy. “I didn’t*t know what to do. I didn’t expect it to go in. You never expect to make a hole-in-one. It was really exciting walking up on the green and picking the ball up out of the hole.

“The pin was tucked right over the bunker. The person who hit before me hit it short into the bunker, so that made me want to hit it a couple yards further. So at the very worst, I wanted to hit it on the back side of the green and have a better putt at it. Actually, I hit it a bit heavy. I was begging for it to go, and it just barely cleared the bunker, and it happened to trickle right into the hole and ended up being the right yardage.”

The Tigers play the final round today.

Texas A&M’s Ignacio Elvira and Wichita State’s Dustin Garza broke away from a four-way tie for first at 6-under after the first round to head into the final round as the co-leaders at 8-under with both posting 70s on Friday. There is a four-way tie for third at 6-under.

26 track & field athletes accepted NCAA bids
Twenty-six members of the Auburn men’s and women’s track and field team have been accepted into the field for the Preliminary Round of the
NCAA Championships. Fourteen women and 12 men will compete in the East Regional Preliminary Round on May 27-29 in Greensboro, N.C.

Under the first-year format being used for the 2010 NCAA Outdoor Championships, the top 48 declared athletes in each of two regions were accepted into the field to compete in the Preliminary Rounds. The top 12 finishers in each event at each of the two regional sites will qualify for
the NCAA Outdoor Championships on June 9-12 in Eugene, Ore.

Members of the No. 9-ranked men’s team that will make the trip to North Carolina, with their events and their rankings in the East Region field, include: Harry Adams (100m – T5), Ben Cheruiyot (5000m – 1; 10,000m – 19), Michael DeHaven (100m – T33; 200m – T9), Luke Gaines (javelin – 42), Elkanah Kibet (5000m – 3; 10,000m – 32), Felix Kiboiywo (1500m – 1), Scott Novack (3000m steeplechase — 17), Marcus Rowland (100m – 1), Jean-Pierre Weerts (5000m – 23; 10,000m – 22) and Eric Werskey (shot put – 4; discus – 28).

In addition, Stephen Fly and Spencer Ferguson will travel as part of Auburn’s fourth-ranked 4x100-meter relay team.

For the No. 11-ranked Auburn women’s team, the following athletes will compete in Greensboro: Amelia Anderson (400m hurdles – 10), Joanna Atkins (400m – 1), Stephanie Barnes (10,000m – 37), Sheniqua Ferguson (100m – 3; 200m – T4), Danielle Gilchrist (400m hurdles – 40), Holly Knight (10,000m – 18), Latoya Parkinson (400m hurdles – T26), Maya Pressley (high jump – T13), Laurel Pritchard (10,000m – 24), Kai Selvon (200m – T41) and Nivea Smith (100m – T9; 200m – T4).

The Tiger women also have the third-ranked 4x100-meter relay team and the No. 4 4x400-meter relay team, which added Cache Armbrister, CeCe Williams and Shaquela Williams to the field as well.