The Wildcats posted a four-player score of 324 — 36-over-par — after the first day of the event on Friday and are in sixth place in the eight-team field, 12 strokes behind fourth-place Saginaw Valley State as four teams advance to match play.

Another team that NMU will also have to leapfrog during today’s second of two days of stroke play is just a stroke behind SVSU — while the Cardinals shot 312, fifth-place Wayne State is at 313. In addition, third-place Ferris State is just ahead of them at 310.

Davenport leads the way with a four-player total of 12-over-par 300 as Grand Valley State is a close second with 304.

Trailing Northern is Lake Superior State at 332 and Purdue Northwest at 347.

Northern Michigan University women’s golfer Maya Hunter tees off during a tournament held at Findlay, Ohio, University during the 2022-23 season. (Photo courtesy NMU)

Today’s second round was scheduled for this morning, while two rounds of match play to determine a team champion will be held this afternoon and Sunday morning.

Leading the Wildcats is junior Maya Hunter, who shot nines of 39 and 38 for a 5-over-par 77. Though she is tied for 12th place in the 43-player field, she trails leader Hannah Robinson of Davenport by just four strokes and is only two strokes out of a four-way logjam for third.

Hunter actually tied for the most pars in the field with 14, including a stretch of nine straight from the sixth to 14th holes. She played the par-3s and par-4s each at 1-over while carding 3-over on the par-5s. Also listed as without a birdie on the official statistics, it also means she would’ve had four bogeys and one double-bogey.

As a team, Northern played the par-3s at a 3.50 stroke average, the par-4s at a 4.60 average and the par-5s at a 5.87 average. The team recorded 34 pars and the fourth-most birdies with five.

Also for NMU, senior Alyssa Yaggie and sophomore Hailey Bolander were next-best shooters, each with a 9-over 81 and tied for 24th. Both had a pair of birdies, Yaggie on back-to-back holes, the par-3 11th where only one other birdie was recorded and the par-5 12th, while Bolander got hers on a pair of par-4s, the seventh and 16th.

Yaggie also played the par-3s in even-par, tied for second best in the field.

Junior teammate Maggie Pietila rounded out Northern’s team score with a 13-over 85 for 34th place, while freshman Payton Donnelly carded 95 for 42nd as Donnelly also had a birdie.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.