NCMC Lady Pirates golfer Hannah Bracken has qualified for the NJCAA National Tournament which will be held May 14-17 at Longbow Golf Course in Mesa, AZ. The three-day event will be preceded by practice rounds on May 12-13. Bracken becomes the first Lady Pirates golfer to reach Nationals.
Coach Daniel Cordray details the round Hannah put together, a +19 score good for 2nd place, at Friday's Region 16 Tournament. "Hannah started out a little rough on her round. We kept chatting through the front nine to keep battling and the round would turn out fine. Hannah capped off the front nine with a birdie on the Par 5 9th hole. This gave her some good momentum going into the back nine. Her scores were staying steady on the back 9 and I knew she had a good shot at going to the nationals. On hole 15, a shorter par 5, she made a double bogey and I knew she was really going to have to finish strong on the final three holes to make the cut. She finished bogey, par, birdie to make the cut by one stroke."
Final scores for the event were as follows:
1st Place: Rachel Hancock, Cottey College +18
2nd Place: Hannah Bracken, NCMC +19
3rd Place: Julia Weydert, NCMC +22
4th Place: Shayla Woodside, NCMC +60
"It has been good season for Women's Golf to see all three ladies steadily improve. Capping it off with a National Tournament berth by Hannah is great. She has worked bit by bit at improving her weaknesses that we identified and slowly progressed with them all season. As a coach, it was my goal to have them focus on improving all the way to regionals. We did that and peaked with our games when it mattered most. We'll work hard with Hannah the next 2 weeks to be ready for the national tournament," concluded Cordray.