ST. PAUL, MINN. – Everything is starting to come together for the St. Catherine University golf team at exactly the right time. From Saturday to Sunday, the Wildcats jumped from sixth to first place as a team to with the College City Challenge at Bellwood Oak Golf Couse in Hastings, Minnesota. A key player in the team victory was none other than Kaitlyn Alvarez (Eau Claire, Wis. / North), whose steady consistency led to not on a team victory, but an individual one as well. For her performance, Alvarez has been named Wildcat Athlete of the Week.
Alvarez has been one of the top golfers for St. Kate’s all season, typically serving as the team’s No. 1 or 2 golfer. However, when the Wildcats needed her most, Alvarez shot the round of her life. The junior carded the lowest score of any St. Kate’s golfer in the first round, a 77. That score put her in a tie for third place, two strokes behind the leader Rachel Morris.
Like her teammates, Alvarez also had some work to do to claim her spot at the top of the leaderboard.
However, Alvarez proved to be the most consistent golfer of the tournament. As Morris and Bethel’s Christine Piwnica struggled, Alvarez stayed steady, shooting her second consecutive 77 to finish the tournament with a two-day score of 154. That score gave her a share of the lead and the first individual tournament victory of her career.
Alvarez is just the third Wildcat in program history to win a tournament as an individual and the first to do so this season. Her teammates Abby Conzemius (Chanhassen, Minn. / Minnetonka) and Sydney Busker (Detroit Lakes, Minn. / Detroit Lakes) are the other two golfers to have won individual tournaments.
Thanks to Alvarez and her teammates’ performances, St. Kate’s won the College City Challenge by one stroke over Carleton College with a two-day score of 641. It’s just the third time in school history that the Wildcats have won a tournament and the first time this 2016 season.
