McLean still on top as tourney enters final day

CAMROSE, ALTA., (Sept. 28, 2019) - Two rounds down, one to go for Carey McLean.

The first-year Trojan still finds herself atop the women's standings at the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Golf Championships following Day 2 of the event, hosted by the University of Alberta-Augustana Vikings at Coal Creek Golf Resort just outside Camrose, Alta. The third and final round comes Sunday.

"It was definitely one of the most steady rounds I've seen from anyone this year," said Yanitski. "Until a rare triple-bogey at the end, she was very level maintaining and playing with the lead, and still closed it out holding a one-shot lead."

On Saturday, McLean fired a 9-over 81 to take a one-shot lead going into the final round over sisters Kassidy and Kennedy Turcotte from the Concordia University of Edmonton Thunder, who both fired 78's on Day 2 to sit at a combined 18-over par for the weekend.

"Her tournament experience speaks for itself, and we expect her to handle sleeping on the lead just fine," Yanitski added. "It's not something we need to talk to her about, as she already has that mindset ingrained from her junior tournament career. She'll be more than comfortable out there."

Teammate Tashel Scantlebury (5th year, Foxwarren, Man., Community Economic Development) carded an 18-over 90, which included a chip-in eagle on her very first hole of the day.

Together, McLean and Scantlebury have the SAIT women's team in second place, 19 shots back of Concordia and 11-strokes ahead of Medicine Hat College.

On the first day of play, the Trojans men's team struggled to post low scores. On Saturday, four of their top five bettered their Day 1 rounds as they tried to get back into the top 3 in the team standings.

Rock Ruschkowski (2nd year, Calgary, Respiratory Therapy) and Dakota Smith (2nd year, Edmonton, Alta., Bachelor of Business Administration) each fired rounds of 74 on Saturday.

Smith sits alone in sixth place, while Ruschkowski is in 13th spot.

"Definitely a rebound day today," said Trojans assistant coach Bryce Halverson. "We had some solid rounds out there from Rock and Dakota, and had a couple of guys with blemishes on their cards that they would like to have back. . . Overall, the team as a whole played better."

Also counting for the Trojans on the day was Matthew Cook (1st year, Airdrie, Alta., Business Administration), who recorded his second-straight round of 10-over 82; and Curtis Webster (1st year, Calgary, Business Administration), who was two strokes better on Saturday than he was on Friday, also producing a 10-over 82.

Combined, the team sits 12 strokes back of third place University of Alberta-Augustana.

"We know we need to go low tomorrow," Halverson added. "And we know that our guys need to have the rounds they were having when we were winning the North and South Regionals. . . Everyone needs to win their own battle within their threesome tomorrow, and if we're able to do that, we should make things interesting."