April 21, 2007
New Mexico freshman Jodi Ewart shot a 1-over 72 in the final round to take the individual title at the Mountain West Conference Women’s Golf Championships today in St. George, Utah. Ewart, who finished 54 holes at 7-over 220, bested TCU’s Valentine Derrey by one shot on the challenging par-71, 6,210-yard Entrada at Snow Canyon course. Complete results are available at www.golfstat.com.
Ewart and BYU’s Rachel Newren were named the Co-Players of the Year in the Mountain West, while Ewart also earned Freshman of the Year honors.
A native of North Yorkshire, England, Ewart had to drop a testy 4-foot putt on 18 to secure the first win of her collegiate career. She become just the second Lobo freshman to win a tournament. Current teammate Mikaela Backstedt captured the New Mexico State Intercollegiate last year. Ewart is the third Lobo to take the MWC title, joining Katrina Leckovic in 2003 and Ryley Webb in 2001.
“The last four or five holes were extremely nerve wracking,” explained Ewart. “I’ve been in that situation before so I just tried to stay calm. However, my hands were shaking on the last putt.”
As a team, 16th-ranked New Mexico finished third with a total of 74-over-par 926. TCU won the team championship by one stroke over BYU, becoming the first school other than New Mexico or UNLV to claim the MWC trophy. UNM won the first four titles from 2000-03. UNLV had taken the past three.
Ewart and Derrey started the final round tied for second place, two shots behind BYU’s Rachel Newren. While Newren shot herself out of contention with a 4-over 39 on the front side, Ewart and Derrey were steady in the early going before trading several leads over the final nine holes.
Ewart got to 2-under on her round after making birdie at No. 11, and she held a one-shot lead after Derrey bogeyed the par-3 12th. Derrey regained the top spot when she birdied the par-3 14th and Ewart made bogey.
Derrey pushed her advantage to two shots after Ewart took bogey on the par-4 15th.
Derrey, however, probably lost the tournament at 16 when she coughed up a triple-bogey 8. Ewart had her third straight bogey on 16, but the twosome was tied with two holes remaining.
The final lead of the tournament was in Ewart’s hands, though, after Derrey made bogey 5 on 17. Ewart parred the final two holes to take medalist honors.
Ewart’s first college season has been impressive – if not historic. Never finishing lower than 15th place in nine tournaments this year, Ewart is on track to break the school season scoring record of 73.40 set by Backstedt a year ago. Ewart has a 72.96 average after 27 rounds with at least one tournament remaining.
Lobo junior Giselle Claux finished tied for 13th at 20-over 233. Backstedt was all alone in 20th place at 239 followed by sophomore Py Bengtsson, who tied for 21st at 240. Junior Alexandra Phelps rounded out the Lobo scoring at 245, tying for 28th place.
The Lobos are off for nearly three weeks before NCAA regional competition gets underway May 10.