Deanna Mychalishyn

Anne Busam

Springfield, Ohio — After the finest season in the relatively brief history of the Wittenberg University women's golf program, a trio of scholar athletes continued their strong play by performing well in the 2011 Cincinnati Metropolitan Women's Amateur Championship.

Leading the charge was Deanna Mychalishyn, class of 2014 from Mason, Ohio, who tied for 19th place in the stroke play portion of the tournament before catching fire to win the first flight of the match play portion of the championship. Mychalishyn, who averaged 85.7 strokes while playing a team-high 22 rounds in her inaugural collegiate campaign, won three matches over three days last week to claim the title.

She was joined in the field by teammate Anne Busam, class of 2012 from Cincinnati, Ohio, and future teammate Rachel Steiner, class of 2015 from Hamilton, Ohio. Busam, who has led the Tigers in stroke average each of the last three years, and Steiner finished the stroke play portion tied for 15th place. Then Busam claimed the 16th and final spot in the championship flight of the match play tourney with a birdie on the first playoff hole to send Steiner to the first flight with Mychalishyn.

Busam went on to lose a 19-hole decision to eventual championship flight winner Marissa Steen, an All-Conference USA honoree at the University of Memphis, in the first round. Steiner lost in the first round of the first flight match play competition.

"An important part of our program continuing to improve is the work completed during the summer months away from campus by the young ladies on our team," said Head Coach Jeff Roope, who led the Tigers to their first-ever top-25 ranking during the 2010-11 season and the No. 5 spot in the final Great Lakes Region rankings. "Deanna, Anne and Rachel put in some good work at The Met and will be that much more prepared to compete against some of the top D3 teams in the country because of it."

Written By: Ryan Maurer
Photo By: Erin Pence

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