Ohio's Golf Magazine May 2009 : Page 14
continued from p. 13 Ohio’s Golf MAC Women Kent State Women Continue Dominance of MAC Head to regional at Scarlet after 11th straight tournament championship Since the 1998-99 inaugural season, Kent State Head Coach Mike Morrow has achieved perfection in a sport in which perfect isn’t possible. A former All-American and four- time letter winner (1971-1975) for the men’s program, Morrow has led the Golden Flashes women’s golf team to 11 Mid-American Conference champi- onships in the 11 years that the program has been in existence. In that time he has been named MAC Coach of the Year nine times, and 10 of his players have earned MAC medalist honors. The Golden Flashes kept the streak alive at the MAC championship April 24-26 at Longaberger Golf Club. Kent State (+65) won going away by 39 strokes over second-place Central Michigan (+104) in the 72-hole tournament. Freshman Mercedes Germino (73-75-80-72—300) edged senior teammate Kirby Dreher (79-76- 75-71—301) by one stroke to capture medalist honors. The championship earned Kent State a ninth-straight invitation to the NCAA regionals May 7-9 at Ohio State’s Scarlet course. “This never gets old,” Morrow said. “Each year presents a new challenge, and to our credit the players were never out there scoreboard watching. They were focused right up to the end of the 72nd hole.” Morrow has coached 10 MAC Players of the Year, eight Freshmen of the Year and 46 All-MAC honorees, including 34 All- MAC First Team selections. Four Kent State golfers have earned National Golf Coaches Association All-America honors, while garnering NGCA All- Scholar accolades 21 times. The Golden Flashes have advanced to the NCAA championship three times (2001, 2003 and 2006) After guiding Kent State to its first appearance in both the NCAA Central regional and the NCAA championship in 2001, Morrow was named the Central Region Coach of the Year by the National Golf Coaches Association of America and the National Coach of the Year by Golfweek magazine. It was just the third year of existence for the program. Morrow cites patience and strong recruiting for the program’s early success, which has snowballed over the past decade. “We started with all freshmen the first year and were patient in recruiting,” Morrow recalls. “That game plan has helped a lot. Success breeds success. There are some upper classmen that teach the younger ones. That helps. We teach quite a bit, and that is good because a majority of the kids really improve when they get here.” Morrow’s blueprint for success was put to the test this season when he had to replace All-MAC first-team selections Tara Delaney and Kira Meixner, who 14 MAY 2009 • WWW.OHIOSGOLF.COM combined to play in 87 tournaments in their careers, ranking first and fourth, respectively, in scoring average at Kent State. The 2007-2008 team finished 15th in the Golfweek rankings, the highest in the program’s history. The Golden Flashes (No. 19 in the Morrow has led the Golden Flashes women’s golf team to 11 Mid-American Conference championships in the 11 years that the program has been in existence. most recent Golfweek rankings) have responded thanks to the strong play and senior leadership of Dreher and Marietta native Maddi Swaney. After that, the squad is loaded with young talent, including Argentineans Germino and sophomore Martina Gavier, and freshman Mandi Morrow, the coach’s daughter. Swaney finished fourth, while Morrow was seventh and Gavier 10th at the MAC championship. “Mercedes really filled a big void with the loss of two outstanding seniors from last year’s team,” Morrow said. “She didn’t play like a freshman at all this year. That coupled with the senior leadership from Kirby and Maddi and I couldn’t be more pleased with how we’re playing right now.” Morrow hopes the strong play carries over to the regionals and into the NCAA tournament. “Ideally, we’d like to peak during the MAC Cham-pionships and NCAA play,” Morrow continued.” This team has the desire and work ethic to go along with a tremendous amount of talent. I’m excited to see how things turn out in May.”
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