In the Missouri Valley Conference Championship this past week, Bradley women’s golf took seventh place as a team, bouncing around the leaderboard consistently throughout the three rounds.
Entering the tournament, the team was ranked fourth in the conference and after struggling at the start, finished their last round of the season in solid fashion.
Junior Grace Aromando tied for fourth and sophomore Maria Perakis tied for 14th individually, leading the Braves as the season came to a close.
“I hit a lot of really great shots and made good club choices with the 40 [mile per hour] wind,” Aromando said. “I would say being able to do that in the first two days really helped me get to the position I was at on the last day. I hit some really terrible shots on my first three holes on Tuesday and decided to draw a line on my scorecard and make a change.”
That line ended up making a difference,
“I was four over after three holes and ended at a total of three over, so it’s all about how you react to the bad shots,” Aromando added.
The junior finished with a score of 232, 16 strokes over par and tying for fourth, only one stroke behind the three-way tie for first. Improving each round, the junior fired away rounds of 79-78-75.
Head coach Halley Morell enjoyed her team’s resolve but was especially proud of Aromando.
“She didn’t quite have the fall we were expecting coming in, and so throughout the spring, we’ve been working really hard on some of those things and making a lot of strides,” Morell said. “I think this tournament was very good for her to finally see all the hard work she has been putting in throughout the spring kind of pay off, and show her that she can compete with anybody that she wants to at this level.”
Aromando grew up an hour away from the course in Waterloo, Illinois and was one of the few competitors to have played the course before. This gave her an advantage over her opponents.
Perakis shot a 22-over-par in the tournament, carding an 85, 76 and 77 in her three rounds. Fourteenth may seem far behind in the race, but Perakis only finished seven shots out of first.
“It was good to see her rebound because she struggled a lot in that first round shooting that 85,” Morell said. “We had some good discussions afterwards about why and she was able to make that switch before the second round and really played great in the second and third rounds.”
Senior Mara Flaherty finished the tournament tied for 37th, firing away a total of 248 and finishing 32-over-par. Flaherty already made the decision that her collegiate career won’t end just yet, saying she’ll play next year for the Braves.
Close behind her was fifth-year senior Megan Welch, with a 34-over-par performance. Welch posted an 86 on the first day, followed by back-to-back 82s to finish up in a tie for 40th place. Despite this being Welch’s last dance, Morell says that she’ll leave a legacy behind.
“Megan [Welch] is a leader on the team,” Morell said. “She’s gonna leave a legacy [that] this is how we do things at Bradley women’s golf, and she showed some of those underclassmen how to go about their business.
“Obviously, she’s in the record books with one of the best careers here, but she will be missed and I’m sure we’ll still be talking to her and she’ll still be part of the program forever,” she added.
Freshman Allison Pacocha closed things out for the Braves with a total score of 261 in her first conference championship.
As a team, Bradley finished seventh out of the twelve conference schools. They started day one in 10th, then dropped to ninth before ending day three strong and taking home seventh place.
Part of the reason Bradley golfers as a whole struggled the first day was a mixture of the storms and 30-plus-mile-per-hour wind gusts that kept balls from rolling, something the Braves were used to relying on in their tee shots.
As the year wraps up, the team celebrates its 2023 successes but is already switching gears to its run in 2024.
“I am really excited to hit the ground running next year. We have some great players coming in, and have a really good idea of where to start in order to put ourselves in a great position to be in contention at the conference in spring of 2024,” Aromando said. “I think we can do some amazing things next season and really surprise some people.”
“I think the ribbon comes from knowing all the progress we made, especially throughout the spring,” Morell said. “Even though we didn’t tie a perfect bow with a championship title at the end, we are so much farther ahead than where we were at the end of the fall in November. The girls have a plan, we have a really good structure on how to think on the golf course, and I think they’re excited from what we’ve seen so far in the spring.”
