Katie Mitchell and Karolina Vickova walked onto the greens of the Black Diamond Ranch Monday morning hoping to score a win for the Gators on their birthday.
But the redshirt sophomore and freshman had to settle for a fourth-place finish in the six-team Florida Challenge after winning last year. After winning the title at the Lecanto meet by nine strokes last season, No. 16 UF scored 17-over (593), finishing eleven shots behind winner Central Florida.
“It was a tough day out there for us,” coach Emily Glaser said in a release.
“We made too many mistakes that you can’t on a course that was scoreable.”
Mitchell tied for 14th place with FIU’s Meghan MacLaren, shooting rounds of 75 and 74, while Vickova shot rounds of 76 and 75 to tie for 21st place with FIU’s Camila Serrano and Shelby Coyle.
Senior Elcin Ulu was the highest-scoring player for Florida, finishing fourth in the 43-competitor field after shooting two rounds of 72 in her senior-season debut.
“Elcin had a solid day and I am proud of her,” Glaser said. “She hasn’t competed for us in a while and she played like a senior leader today.”
Maria Torres and Ursa Orehek also played for the Gators in the Florida Challenge, finishing with totals of 150 and 152, respectively.
Torres, a freshman, led the team off for the first time in her career at the one-day, 36-hole tournament, having earned a 72.3 average in the fall semester.
Orehek placed second, improving on her 2013 performance by three shots.
Returning individual co-champion Camilla Hedberg played unattached to the team, and the junior tied for seventh with three other players after shooting rounds of 73 and 74. Her score of 147 placed her just three-over par.
The team will look to improve in its first three-round spring tournament, the Northrup Grumman Regional Challenge, on Feb. 9-11 in Palos Verdes, Calif. The Gators placed fifth out of 16 teams in the 2013 competition.
“We have a few weeks to get ready for Palos Verdes,” Glaser said, “and we will make the most of them.”
Follow Emily Cochrane on Twitter @EmilySCochrane
