UNCG, Wake Forest to host Bryan National Collegiate this weekend
.jpg?max_width=450 "UNCG coach Emily Marron")
UNCG at Bryan National Collegiate (co-hosted by UNCG and Wake Forest), March 25-27, Bryan Park GC, Browns Summit, N.C.
By Rob Daniels
uncgspartans.com
For the 14th straight season, UNCG and Wake Forest will team up to host the Bryan National Collegiate, to be played this weekend at Bryan Park Golf Course. Thirteen of the nation's top 50 teams will be in the 17-team field.
ELITE FIELD: Of the approximately 30 tournaments completed this spring nationwide, only three have had more top-50 squads than the Bryan's total of 13. (Rankings through results of Sunday, March 20). The top-50 teams teeing it up at Bryan Park are No. 6 Duke; No. 8 Virginia; No. 14 Tennessee; No. 15 Wake Forest; No. 17 Michigan State; No. 18 Vanderbilt; No. 19 North Carolina; No. 30 Florida State; No. 31 Ohio State; No. 35 South Carolina; No. 37 Washington; No. 39 Northwestern; and No. 41 Louisville.
The 17 participating teams hail from 10 states, ranking in distance traveled as the crow flies from 9.37 miles (UNCG) to 2,297 miles (Washington). The Huskies' trip is their only regular-season venture east of Tucson, Ariz., in 2010-11. Washington, which won the Bryan in 1999, is the first Pac 10 team to participate since California in 2006.
Eight of the country's top 50 individuals will compete at the Champions Course: No. 3 Lindy Duncan of Duke; No. 9 Brittany Altomare of Virginia; No. 15 Sara-Maude Juneau of Louisville; No. 22 Michelle Shin of Wake Forest; No. 25 Marina Alex of Vanderbilt; No. 31 Caroline Powers of Michigan State; No. 32 Anya Alvarez of Washington; and No. 42 Laetitia Beck of Duke.
The top seven individual finishers from 2010 are all in the field again this year.
GOOD OMEN: The Bryan winner has finished in the top 12 at the NCAA championships in each of the past 10 years. That stretch includes national championships by Duke (2002, 2005) and a second-place showing in the NCAAs by Purdue in 2007.
ALUMNAE: In all, nine individuals have combined for the 10 best scores in the Bryan's 13-year history. (Virada Nirapathpongporn of Duke owns two of the top five performances.) Of those nine, three are in the field this year: Cheyenne Woods of Wake Forest, Nathalie Mansson of Tennessee and Brittany Altomare of Virginia. The other six have played on the LPGA Tour and have made the cut in a major championship.
SPARTANS BACK IN ACTION: UNCG will be competing for the first time since finishing 10th in the 18-team field at the JMU Eagle Landing Invite in Jacksonville, Fla., on March 13.
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