APSU Women’s Golf head to Jan Weaver Invitational for final regular season event

APSU Sports Information

Clarksville, TN – The Austin Peay State University (APSU) women’s golf gets one final chance to prove itself ahead of the 2019 Ohio Valley Conference Women’s Golf Championships when the Govs make the trek north to the Jan Weaver Invitational, hosted by Murray State, at Miller Memorial Golf Course.

Half the league will tee it up at this event; in addition to the Govs and host Racers, golfers from Belmont, Eastern Kentucky, Tennessee State and Tennessee Tech will be in the mix, as will players from Alabama State, Bradley, Lipscomb, Missouri Baptist, Northern Kentucky, Rutgers, Southern Illinois and ULM.

Miller Memorial is a par-71 measuring 6,017 yards, with small greens requiring pinpoint iron placement. This is the fifth year in a row the Govs have played this event, meaning seniors Taylor Goodley and Ashton Goodley are on their fourth trip around Miller. Taylor Goodley has never finished outside the top-20 in three attempts at this event, topping out at eighth as a freshman.

This tournament will mean different things to different members of the Austin Peay lineup. For freshman Taylor Dedmen, a top-level finish here would add one more accolade to an already-compelling case for OVC Freshman of the Year.

The Plant City, Florida native’s 75.5 stroke average is tied with Jacksonville State’s Claire Vermette for best by an OVC freshman, with Dedmen owning five top-10 finishes to none for Vermette and a better finish (19th to 25th) in their only head-to-head meeting in the fall opener at the Golfweek Program Challenge.

Playing at No. 2, junior Meghann Stamps looks to put together a solid opening round to complement what has been consistently good play in latter rounds. Her 78.6 opening-round stroke average is a full stroke worse than her average in any other round and she’s been forced to rally after opening rounds in the 80s her last two tournaments.

A better-than-average opening round, paired with her routinely respectable performances in latter rounds, could bump Stamps’ 77.2 stroke average somewhere into the OVC’s top-10; she’s just over half-a-stroke behind the league-leaders heading into the weekend.

Seniors Reagan Greene and Taylor Goodley have legacy-building to continue in the final regular-season event of their collegiate careers. Goodley has the aforementioned top-20 streak to continue, while Greene could go from being around the All-OVC conversation to right in the inner circle if she were to pull out another victory.

The fifth spot in the lineup has been in several hands this season, with sophomore Riley Cooper holding it this week based on her performance at the Colonel Classic last time out. For Cooper, a solid outing here could be just the thing that propels her into the lineup for the OVC Championships and erases any residual memories from a lost fall due to injury.

But by the same token, any of Cooper, Ashton Goodley, Shelby Darnell or Andrea Presilla will be eager to show head coach Amy McCollum what they can do for the lineup two weeks from now in Alabama and this will serve as a final opportunity to make McCollum’s decision for the fifth spot in the order a difficult one.

At press time, pairings for this event had not been released; live scoring has not been available at this event in the past and is unlikely to be on the docket this year. A complete recap and stats will be available at the end of play Friday and Saturday, with LetsGoPeay.com providing on-the-ground updates during Friday’s play on Twitter (@AustinPeayWGO).