TUNICA, Miss.- University of Southern Indiana Women’s Golf team concluded their season with an eighth-place tie at the Ohio Valley Conference Championship in Tunica, Mississippi. The event was held over three days at the Tunica National Golf Course.
The championships are a culmination of the entire season for all nine OVC teams fighting for first place. The format included five golfers per team with the winner being awarded to the lowest team score after three rounds of play. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock hoisted the OVC Championship trophy.
Round One
The Screaming Eagles came out slow with an opening-round score of 346 on Sunday. Senior Halle Gutwein (DeMotte, Indiana) led the Eagles shooting an 82 (+10) for the round.
Round Two
USI improved throughout the tournament dropping nine strokes to their score in round two at 337. Gutwein’s consistent play led to an 82 (+10), but the biggest improvement came from junior Baileigh Schneider (Huntingburg, Indiana) who dropped her score by 10 strokes at 84 (+12) for the round.
Round Three
Round three saw the biggest jump in the tournament shooting a team score of 323, which marked a 23-stroke improvement from round one. Three Eagles shaved multiple strokes shooting below an 82 (+10). Senior Katelyn Sayyalinh (Rockford, Illinois) shot an 81 (+9), while freshman Alexis Wymer (Bridgeport, Illinois) and Gutwein both shot 80 (+8).
The Eagles had three seniors Haylee Exline (Poseyville, Indiana), Gutwein, and Sayyahlinh all playing pivotal roles in their time at USI.
Exline was sidelined this season with an injury but was a force for the Eagles in 2022-23. The Oakland City University transfer made an immediate impact in her junior season with a team-low 83.09 strokes per round after eight tournaments and owned the lowest 18-hole round of 73 at the OVC championship.
Gutwein is a four-year Eagle who has been through the GLVC and OVC era at USI. She has nabbed all-academic honors in both conferences. In 2021-2022, Gutwin posted her personal best strokes per round of 82.95. In 2023-24, she led the Eagles in three tournaments including the OVC championship.
Sayyalinh is also a four-year Eagle who has played at both levels. She made an immediate impact ranking second on the team in 2021-22 with an average strokes per round score of 81.8. In her sophomore campaign, she captured a GLVC Player of the Week honor along with an 80.24 strokes per round average. Sayyalinh won her first tournament at the Ohio Valley University Shiner’s Hospital Shootout after a season-best 36-hole performance of 156. She led the team in three different tournaments in the 2023-24 season.
Leaderboard:
| 1 | University of Arkansas at Little Rock |
| 2 | Morehead State University |
| 3 | Tennessee Tech University |
| 4 | Western Illinois Univesity |
| 5 | Lindenwood University |
| 6 | Chicago State University |
| 7 | Tennessee State University |
| T8 | University of Southern Indiana |
| T8 | Eastern Illinois University |
