Belles place fourth at Washington University Spring Invite

By THOMAS ZWILLER s ports Writer

After a signature win in the d an Quayle m atch Play Invitational at d ePauw University, the s aint m ary’s golf team was back in action, this time in e ureka, m issouri.

The b elles spent the weekend competing in the Washington University s pring Invite alongside 12 other teams. The field included n o. 4 Washington University in s aint Louis, the host of the tournament.

Day One o n the first day of the two-day competition, the b elles tied for fifth overall. s ophomore Katelyn Tokarz had the best outing for the team, shooting 79, good enough for 12th in the field. c lose behind was freshman Julia Lizak who finished in 17th with an 81. s eniors Katherine h opkins and Isa Patacsil both shot 84, which left them tied for 30th. Fellow senior e rin b ennett was just one shot behind in a tie for 35th.

Washington University held the first team spot with a combined score of 306, while n o. 15 Illinois Wesleyan finished in second, eight strokes behind at 314. A bit further back at 324 was n o.

11 s t. c atherine University, and at a total score of 326 was n o. 24 Grinnell c ollege.

The b elles tied with Washington University’s second team at 328. It was nearly a three-way tie as r ose- h ulman had a team score of 329.

Day Two

The b elles played better on day two, improving from 328 to 315 for a combined score of 643. It was enough to break their tie with Washington University’s second team who finished at 647.

It was also enough to leapfrog them over Grinnell c ollege who shot 319 on day two for a total of 645.

After having the best day-one outing, Katelyn Tokarz shot an 81 and fell into a tie for 15th (160). Included in the tie was Lizak who improved by two shots (79).

h opkins, who shot an 84 on day one, significantly improved on day two, finishing with 77 for a total of b ennett, who had the lowest finish for the b elles on day one, shot 78, seven strokes better than her first outing. The improvement shot her up nine places on the standings. s he was the second biggest mover behind h opkins, who moved up 11 places.

161, which allowed her to finish in a tie for 19th. Patacsil, who had tied with h opkins on day one, scored 84 again and totaled 168. That dropped her seven spots into a tie at 37th.

A fourth-place finish is excellent for the b elles, considering the number of ranked d ivision III opponents they faced, including Grinnell c ollege, who they beat by two strokes.

The team will now have a break before competing in the m ichigan Intercollegiate

Athletic Association nc AA Automatic Qualifier Tournament. The tournament features the top four teams in the m IAA and gives the winner an automatic qualifying bid to the nc AA Tournament.

The competition, comprised of three legs spread across three separate days, kicks off next Tuesday at the e lbel Park Golf c ourse in s outh b end.

The last time the b elles competed in the m IAA AQ in 2022, they finished in first place on all three days, scoring 326, 323 and 311. d ay one of the tournament is currently slated for a tee time of 1 p.m.

Contact Thomas Zwiller at tzwiller@hcc-nd.edu and 2019. They lost both, of course. i n 2020, they avenged that collapse by rallying from a 3-0 deficit in game four of their best-offive qualifier series against the c olumbus b lue Jackets. They fell behind 3-0 in game five, and let’s just say they didn’t quite have another improbable comeback in them.

When c anadiens center n ick s uzuki scored that goal for m ontreal, spoiling yet another m aple Leafs comeback from 3-0 down, i could see the collapse coming. a nd sure enough, that’s exactly what happened.

The m aple Leafs rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the third period of game six on the road but lost in overtime again. Toronto played game seven like they knew they were going to lose it, and sure enough, they did. s teve’s 31-minute eulogy to the team’s season has accumulated nearly 700,000 views. i t was the second longest video he had ever uploaded. h owever, one year later, it became the third longest video on his channel when he crossed the

33-minute threshold in his video for the final game of Toronto’s following season:

“LF r 15 - r ound 1, Game 7The Fog - T b 2, T or 1.” a s someone who usually loves watching s teve’s videos, those game seven defeats have been harder to stomach each year. i t seems like i ’m in the minority here, though — none of d angle’s 19 mostviewed videos are for any of the 600-plus games the m aple Leafs have won since he started his channel. i n the first full season of s teve’s videos i watched (2016-17), the m aple Leafs made the playoffs, and the Flyers didn’t. s o it felt natural to root for the Leafs — the deeper they went, the more content i ’d get to enjoy. b oth made it the next year, but the Flyers went out first, so i shifted gears again. i n 2018-19, the Flyers missed again while the Leafs cruised through the regular season. b y then, there was no doubt which team i ’d be cheering for to go all the way when the Flyers are out of the picture. a t some point over the last six years, s teve has done something i never would have imagined. h e has turned me, someone with no other connections to Toronto or the m aple Leafs, into a legitimate fan of the team. Preteen me would cringe at the idea of cheering for a non-local team —how could i be such a traitor? b ut you know what? i enjoy doing it. There’s no rule against doing it. s o i go and do it. There are a lot of things in life that are extremely complicated — there’s just no point in overthinking something so simple. o f course, the Leafs are not a natural rival of the Flyers. They aren’t hated in Philadelphia the way teams like the n ew York r angers, n ew Jersey d evils, n ew York i slanders and b ruins are. b ut here’s the thing. For as much as i like s teve, for as much as i hope the Leafs break through this year — yep, they’re back in the s tanley c up Playoffs this year — it’s not like we’re friends. We’ve never met. i think we’ve had like two or three very ordinary Twitter interactions. a nd that’s it. a s for all of those above teams, i do have friends who cheer for them. Good friends, in fact. Friends who i really like. a nd as shocking as this may be to read for people who know me, yes, i realize there are things that are more important than sports. Friends are undeniably one of them. i like my friends, and therefore, i like it when they are happy. The r angers winning will make some of them happy. The d evils winning will make others happy. s ame for the b ruins. a nd for the i slanders. a nd other teams that didn’t make the playoffs this year too. a nd that’s just for hockey — there are plenty of instances of this phenomenon occuring in other sports, too. s o, i want my friends to be happy. i hope that things that will make them happy happen. a nd if that includes the r angers or i slanders or b ruins or d evils winning, i — still, for all intents and purposes, the biggest Flyers fan on this campus — will cheer for those things to happen. Yes, i actually mean that. i promise. i understand this may sound like sacrilege. b elieve me, it’s a little weird to write myself. b ut as someone who had (at least a small amount of) support from Yankees, r ed s ox and m ets fans, among others, at my back during the Philadelphia a nd if you’re a Pittsburgh Penguins, d allas c owboys, a tlanta b raves or m ichigan Wolverines fan reading this and thinking that this level of support extends to you — yeah, that’s just not going to happen. s orry, but the line simply has to be drawn somewhere. d on’t think of it like you’re cheering for your rivals. You’re cheering for your friends and people you like, first and foremost. a gain, there are lots of things in life that are really complicated. b ut sometimes it really is that simple.

Phillies’ run to the World s eries last fall, it is so much better to be on the side of people you like. i ’m not saying you can’t chirp them a bit — that’s part of the fun of sports. When they’re playing your team, you can, and absolutely should, still root for them to lose like there’s no tomorrow.

Contact Andrew McGuinness at amcguinn@nd.edu

The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.