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Lynn Wins SpringLake Collegiate Golf Tourney

Mark Pinson/Highlands Today

Lynn University's Maria Thalia Baigorria watches this putt on the 18th hole during Saturday's final round of the SpringLake Intercollegiate women's golf tournament.

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By MARK PINSON Highlands Today

The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 9, 2009

SPRINGLAKE - Lynn University senior Megan Mangone carded a final round of 75 to go with an opening 71 for a two-day total of 146 to win medalist honors in the 11th annual SpringLake Collegiate women's golf tournament on Saturday.

Lynn University's Maha Haddioui finished second with a 147 to lead the Knights to the team title in the five-team event, which was played on the wind-swept Panther Creek course.

Lynn finished with a four-person team score of 599, which included a season-best 297 in Saturday's final round.

Florida Gulf Coast University finished second at 617, Methodist (North Carolina) came in third with a 641, Northern Illinois University, the host school, shot a 645 and Loyola University-Chicago finished fifth at 659.

"The quality of play was excellent from top to bottom," said Northern Illinois coach Pam Tyska. "Lynn showed their strong colors as usual and I knew Methodist would make a move up the leader board because they have a strong team.

"Even though we were down in the number of teams that were able to participate this year, the tournament went very smoothly and the weather couldn't have been better."

Northern Illinois junior Kim Hunley tied for third with Methodist's Paige Caldwell with a two-day total of 149.

Florida Gulf Coast University's Kastania Toomalatai shot a 152, while teammates Amber Pedersen and Katerina Toomalatai tied at 155.

"Kim played really well and I'm thrilled to see that," said Tyska. "She hasn't played a competitive round since last October and we only had one day of practice before the tournament.

"Posting scores like that is impressive this early in the season and I'm glad she's only a junior."

The Northern Illinois squad is in Florida for one more week of golf before they head back home.

"I'm pleased with our effort in the tournament," said Tyska. "A couple of our girls had never seen the Panther Creek course and I thought their introduction to SpringLake was a successful one.

"We didn't play poorly, but we had a couple of bad holes each round and we're in Florida for another week and we're looking forward to improving the longer we're down here."

Tyska hopes that next year's tournament at SpringLake will attract a larger field for the two-day event.

""We enjoy coming down here so much and we can't thank the staff and everybody at SpringLake for taking such wonderful care of us," the Husky coach said. "We're already looking forward to next year and hopefully, we can get our usual large field to compete in this wonderful tournament."

Mark Pinson can be reached at 863-386-5837 or mpinson@highlandstoday.com

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