Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
Elizabeth Stewart knows what it's like to be the best. She was named the ACAC women's golfer of the year in 2015.
Now she shares the distinction of shooting the lowest round of golf in MacEwan University's illustrious women's program history.
The fifth-year veteran out of Edmonton's Royal Mayfair Golf Club fired a 78 on Sunday during the second round of the ACAC North Regional at the Camrose GC. That ties a round of 78 that Megan Vermillion shot at the South Regionals a few years ago.
"Her 78 today was really, really good," said MacEwan golf coach Jodi Campbell. "The thing that really gets (fellow coach) Alan (Riley) and I pumped up is she was 12 shots better today.
"We want to be able to see these players bounce back. She was able to bounce back from a tough day. We were pretty excited for her."
Indeed, Stewart had a dramatic improvement from a tough opening round 90 – one of the highest she's shot in ACAC competition – and finished in a tie for second in the women's individual stroke play. Griffins rookie Hailey Turcotte tied for second with her after firing rounds of 81 and 87 in her first ACAC tournament. Red Deer's Shaye Leidenius (82-82) won by four shots.
"What we're seeing from her is really steady play, just really consistent," said Campbell. "She's got a great attitude and I think that's going to serve her well as she continues in the ACAC."
That also allowed the Griffins women's squad to claim the team title by 24 shots over Red Deer.
Daniela Donnelly (84-85) placed fourth and Rachel Wiebe (87-96) posted her best-ever ACAC finish in eighth.
The positives for the Griffins golf team don't end there either. Although they have a rebuilding men's team, they still won the team title – posting a two-round score of 604, 21 shots better than runner-up Red Deer.
Josh Gorieu led the way by tying for first – (there are no playoffs in ACAC Regional tournaments) – with a 148 (75-73). Medicine Hat's Matthaus Taylor (77-71) also had 148.
Griffins Noah Lubberding (70-80) and Justin Berget (74-76) tied for fourth, while Christian Solkowski counted as MacEwan's fourth score (75-81) in placing ninth.
"Josh obviously played really well," said Campbell. "Him and Noah, they're going to be looked upon to pick up the reins from Brett (Hawken) and Barrett (Belland) last year and they did just that this weekend. Josh played really well."
Lubberding's opening round 70 – 1-under par on the Camrose GC – was among the best-ever posted by a Griffins golfer.
"He was five under after six holes," marveled Campbell. "He ended up having a two on a par-four. He was lights out to start the round.
"Sometimes it's tough to keep a round like that going. You start to think about the result too much, so we were pretty happy with how he was able to keep it under par. He was the only person under par for the whole tournament."
And Berget turned heads in his first-ever ACAC tournament, staying near the top of the leaderboard all weekend.
"We're already starting to see some of his tournament skills coming out - just throwing down some really solid rounds," Campbell said.
Newcomers Les Fisher (11th, 77-81), Dakota Smith (T13th, 79-82), Zac Yurick (T15th, 79-83) as well as returning team member Brandon Walterhouse (28th, 90-82) rounded out the Griffins' results.
"It's the first tournament, so you just go out there and see where everybody's at," said Campbell. "Overall, we're really happy with the weekend. We had a lot of really great performances."
