TU Women's Golf Claims C-USA Championship

The University of Tulsa women's golf won the 2012 Conference USA Championship Wednesday with a three-round score of 884, defeating second-place Tulane by 13 strokes, leading the tournament wire-to-wire.

"This victory is special, especially for our three seniors," said Tulsa Head Coach Randy Keck. "We lost by just a slim margin last year and it really stung. The kids took that to heart and we made a vow last year that we were going to win this time. They stepped up and worked extremely hard leading up to it. This win is super, super special." 

The Golden Hurricane was the only team to shoot less than 300 in all three rounds.

Tulsa placed all five golfers among the top-13 individuals led by senior Marita Engzelius' third-place performance.

"We had very consistent play throughout the tournament and today was no different," said Keck. "Our whole lineup gave us some good rounds. Anna Young gave us a couple great rounds and today Sarah Elliot and Kamryn Ruffin played fantastic. We rely heavily on Kristina and Marita and today some of the other players stepped up too. It was a really good team effort. We finally closed out three straight rounds."

Engzelius and junior Kristina Merkle earned all-tournament team honors as the duo finished among the top-5 individuals.

Engzelius carded a final round 78 and finished with a score of five-over par 221, five strokes behind individual medalist Maribel Porras-Lopez of Tulane.

Merkle recorded a final round 73 to finish with a six-over par 222 total as she birdied three and bogeyed four holes on the day. Senior Kamryn Ruffin had her best round of the tournament with an even-par 72 to finish with a score of 224 for seventh place.

Senior Sarah Elliot finished in 11th place overall marking the fourth time in her four seasons to finish among the top-12 at the league championship. Elliot turned in a one-over par 73 on Tuesday for a three-day total of 225.

Freshman Anna Young, playing in only her sixth career tournament, turned in her best finish of her young career with a score of 12-over par 228 for 13th place.

The victory gave Tulsa its second C-USA title in seven years as a league member, the first since winning in 2008. It also marks the 12th conference title in 19 years as a conference member. Tulsa women's golf did not join a conference until the 1993-94 season.

WGolf: Individual Results:
T3. Marita Engzelius (+5),
5. Kristina Merkle (+6)
T7. Kamryn Ruffin (+8)
11. Sarah Elliot (+9)
T13. Anna Young (+12)

UCF (897), Tulane (901), Memphis and SMU (929), East Carolina (930), UTEP (944), Marshall (949), UAB (950) and Southern Miss (991) rounded out the 10-team field.

Tulsa now has 40 Conference USA Championships since joining the league in 2005-06. The six titles this season are the most in C-USA.