The NCAA News - News and Features

May 5, 1997

Division I

Arizona and Baena would like repeat of last year's sensational finish

Event: 1997 Division I Women's Golf Championships.

Overview: It would be hard to top last year's championships for dramatics. Spectators will not soon forget Arizona freshman Marisa Baena, who holed a 147-yard shot for eagle on the first hole of sudden death that gave her Wildcats the team title. Baena, who also won medalist honors at last year's event, is a sophomore now and winner of three tournaments this year. She is ranked tops in the country by a wide margin according to the College Golf Foundation Rolex rankings. Baena won San Jose State's Spartan Invitational in March to go with victories in the New Mexico Dick McGuire Invitational and the Rolex Fall Preview. She'll be pushed for medalist honors this year by San Jose State's Janice Moodie, who finished fifth last year, and Stanford's Andrea Baxter, who placed fourth a year ago and won the prestigious Golf World-Palmetto Dunes Intercollegiate this spring. Duke's Jenny Chausiriporn, Heather Bowie of Texas and Arizona State's Kellee Booth, runner-up in 1996, also lurk .... As for the team race, San Jose State is the College Golf Foundation's top-ranked team, followed by Arizona and Arizona State. The Spartans won their own invitational behind top-10 finishes from Moodie and sophomore K. M. Juul, and also took team honors in the Stanford Intercollegiate .... The Cardinal also should mount a challenge for the team title after having won three tournaments this year, including the Rolex Match Play Team Championships .... Other contenders for the national team crown include Southern stalwarts Duke, Tennessee and LSU.

Field: A total of 204 golfers representing five districts will participate in two regionals to determine the championships field of 96 competitors.

Dates and sites: The East regional will be May 8-10 at the Prairie Vista Golf Course in Bloomington, Illinois (hosted by Illinois State), and the West regional will be May 8-10 at the Randolph Park North Golf Course in Tucson, Arizona (hosted by Arizona). The championships finals will be May 21-24 at Ohio State's Scarlet Course.

Information/results: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915 for NCAA institutions and passcode 1925 for the general pulic); request numbers are 5102 for first-round results, 5103 for second-round results, 5104 for third-round results and 5105 for final-round results. Individual and team results also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. Regional results will appear in the May 19 issue of The NCAA News. Championships results will appear in the June 2 issue of the News.