Historic day for Cusumano earns her runner-up finish

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Saluki senior Brooke Cusumano rallied in the final round of the Murray State Invitational to shoot 1-under-par 71 and finish in a tie for second place to highlight SIU's performance at the event.

Cusumano picked up three strokes off of her first-round score to tie for second with Western Kentucky's Georgina Blackman. She was just one-stroke behind Western Kentucky's Mary Joiner who won the tournament.

"I'm really pleased with Brooke," head coach Alexis Mihelich said. "She knew she had to go low today to have a shot at medalist honors and she played great. She's such a competitor and proved that today."

It was Cusumano's first under-par round this season. Her 71 ties her for the sixth-best performance in a third round in SIU history. Kelly Gerlach shot 71 in 2004 at the Bay Tree Classic and Cusumano's fellow teammate, Alice Ho, carded a 71 in September of 2015 at the Johnie Imes Invitational. For the tournament, Cusumano shot a three-round score of 218; the fifth-lowest three round score in SIU history and the lowest of her career. Cusumano now has 50 career rounds in the 70s tying her for the seventh-most in SIU's history.

Alice Ho also finished in the top-15 for Southern. She shot a 77 in the closing round to put her in a tie for 12th place. Mihelich attributed Ho's round to a more accurate day off the tee and around the greens.

"I'm extremely pleased with Alice this season. This is the second tournament in a row where she has performed under pressure," Mihelich said. "Last year, she wasn't in the lineup much but this year she is a staple in the top four."

As a team, Southern shaved four strokes off of their first and second round team score to finish at 301 today, but it was not enough to move the team up the leaderboard. Akron and Murray State both posted final round team scores below 300 to bump Southern down the leaderboard two spots to fifth place. Southern came up just short of a top-three finish. The three-round score of 911 was only three strokes short of Akron and Murray State's 908.

Western Kentucky held off all challengers throughout the two-day event thanks in part to having two of the tournament's top-three individual finishers. WKU turned in a team score of 886 to take the title and finish 11-strokes ahead of Murray State's second place B team.

Southern's season will continue on Saturday with the UIC Fall Invite at Cog Hill Golf and Country Club in Lemont, Illinois.

Final Leaderboard:
1 Western Kentucky             294 300 292      886 +22
2 Murray State (B)                 299 298 300      897 +33
T3 Akron 298 312 298      908 +44
T3 Murray State 309 305 294      908 +44
5 Southern Illinois 305 305 301      911 +47
6 Austin Peay State 306 306 303      915 +51
7 Belmont University 309 307 309      925 +61
8 Lipscomb University 322 301 321      944 +80
9 Fort Wayne 334 324 327      985 +121
10 North Carolina Tech 341 328 318      987 +123
11 Eastern Illinois 327 344 317      988 +124
12 Tennessee State 329 341 337      1007 +143

SIU Scores
T2 Brooke Cusamano (1)        73 74 71 218
T12 Alice Ho (5)                      75 75 77 227
T27 Hanna Netisingha (2)      79 80 74 233
T33 Sun Jung (3)                     78 78 79 235
T44 Xianmei Jin (4)                 80 78 82 240

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Players Mentioned

Brooke Cusumano

Alice Ho

Xianmei Jin

Sun Jung

Hanna Netisingha

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