With the cancellation of the third round set to take place on Saturday, Oct. 7, the Wheaton Women’s Golf team finished third in the CCIW Women’s Golf Championship after the first and second rounds on Thursday, Oct. 5 and Friday, Oct. 6.
“I am extremely happy with how our team performed,” Head Coach Paluchniak said.
The women’s golf team from Illinois Wesleyan finished on top for the 14th time in conference history, and they earned the automatic NCAA Division III bid to compete in the Division III championship in May. Carthage College finished second, and Augustana tied the Wheaton Thunder for third place.
“We finished about where we were expected to,” Paluchniak said. “We were selected to finish third in the preseason polls, and we finished third. Augustana finished third tied with us, a surprise to most, but they performed well when it mattered too.”
After round one on Thursday Oct. 5, Wheaton was trailing Carthage by only two points, and Augustana was trailing Wheaton by eight. Then during round two on Friday Oct. 6, Augustana shot 326 and Wheaton shot 333 allowing Augustana to tie the Thunder. There was supposed to be a third round on Saturday Oct. 7, but it “washed out due to heavy rains in the afternoon,” according to the competition’s website.
Individually, Wheaton had two golfers receive All-Conference honors by finishing in the top ten. “ Marin Halvorsen finished sixth, and Kylie Monson finish ninth,” Paluchniak said.
This year was the first year that Paluchniak was the head coach of the Wheaton Women’s Golf team. “I think having a new coach impacted this season in the sense that it made it a learning situation for not just the freshmen or the new coach, but the whole team,” Paluchniak said. “I think the girls handled it exceptionally well and were constantly positive throughout the season. They were a blessing to coach in my first season.”