April 17, 2012
FORT SMITH, Ark. – It wasn’t the Lady Rattlers’ first rodeo this week at the Heartland Conference Tournament, taking a fifth-place finish. But it was Bailey Furgeson’s premiere, although you wouldn’t know it.
In her first stint in the conference championship tournament, freshman Bailey Furgeson (Newcastle, Calif.) led the Rattler crew with an overall 11th-place finish.
The newbie slammed the first round of the tournament with a score of 79 that would go on to be the only Rattler to break in the 70s for the tournament, earning a top-10 first-round finish of seventh place.
Furgeson stayed steady for the second round, hitting three strokes above her first-round finish to end her first trip to the tournament with a combined score of 161. Furgeson was one stroke away from being in a three-way tie of an eighth-place finish.
At the other end of the class scale, upperclassman Alejandra Cantu (Sr., Mission, Texas) was two strokes behind Furgeson for an impressive 13th-place finish. Cantu also completed the first round of the tournament in the top 10 with a tied, ninth-place finish with a score of 81.
Cantu’s tied-for-ninth status after the first round was thanks to fellow Rattler Julia Dickens (Jr., Fredericksburg, Texas), who also had a quality start of an 81 par. Dickens finished 17 overall, followed by Cami Furgeson (Jr., Newcastle, Calif.) and Adela E. Rodriguez (Jr., Monterrey, Mexico) with 21st- and- 24th-place finishes, respectively.
St. Mary’s took a fifth-place finish in the conference tournament with a combined score of 663. The Rattlers ended their season this week but continue on their trek for a regionals appearance next season with a hopeful cast of clubbers.