Records shattered in Illinois

Last year at the Legends Invitational hosted by IU in Franklin, Ind., the Hoosiers shot a round of 296. That marked the team's best effort of the year, three tournaments into the season. This year, at the Northern Invitational in Champaign, Illinois, on the second day of their first tournament, the Hoosiers matched that low round as they finished in fourth place. \n"It means a lot that in the first tournament we all of a sudden meet our goal from last year," sophomore Danah Ford said. "Overall, if we got that much better from last year to this year, it means we can get even better." \nThe Hoosiers also set the IU team record for cumulative score in the history of the Northern Tournament with an 898. The Hoosiers' eventual fourth place finish in the tournament is perhaps more indicative of the much-strengthened field of play than anything else. \n"We really shot some good scores, it was just everybody else shot lower scores," sophomore\nKaren Dennison said. "We played pretty well. We can improve, but we played pretty well." \nBut despite not winning the tournament, the Hoosiers set a barrage of records along the way.\nDennison shot a 222 three-round total, beating her previous best by seven strokes. Junior Cara Stuckey also set a career three-round total of 226 to go along with a career-best 72 total on Saturday. Ford set a new personal single-round record with a 73 and tied her career three-round total of 227. Sophomore Mary Lidester also broke both her career single and three day totals with scores of 73 and 228 respectively. \n"The records are important and it's great that we did that," Lidester said. "It's definitely an accomplishment, but we need to look ahead. We still have to take each goal step by step, and I think we still have to shoot a little bit lower than that even. But I don't know if it's about improving, it's about doing what we're all capable of doing."\nFollowing a first round where she admits to having three "bad holes," Stuckey put up her career low 72 and then a 75 to finish with her three-day record at +10. \n"It's important to know that I'm going in the right direction and just to keep on building on that and do whatever I can to help our team improve," Stuckey said. "Hopefully, I'll continue to break them, because, if I don't, that shows I'm not getting anywhere."\nDennison finished with a tie for eighth overall to lead the Hoosiers in the individual standings. She said she felt her consistent ability to hit the greens and give herself birdie opportunities led to her success and gave her the chance to post her career low three-round record.\n"I was just hitting the ball well and playing really solid golf," Dennison said. "I didn't have any real high scores and I had a couple low ones, and that's what really helped. I felt pretty good about my performance. It was my best finish in a tournament. I definitely think I could've played better, but I'm happy with it."\nCoach Sam Carmichael said he felt the team left room for improvement, attributing the record low round partially to the quality of the course. \n"Anytime you get a golf course in that good condition, it's going to lead to lower scores," \nCarmichael said. "I think we have some positives coming out of the Northern and we have some negatives. We had some good play by four or five individuals and we could have gotten some better play from four or five individuals. But in that last round, if we shoot pretty good we're only three or four shots out of third place. And third place is a whole lot better than fourth or fifth."\nThe Hoosiers next play when they host the Legends Shootout in Franklin Oct. 8-9. haps not with breaking them at the forefront of their attention.