Head coach Julie Manning returned home pleased with her team’s performance at the Central District Challenge in Parrish, Fla., this past weekend.

The ISU women’s golf team finished tied with Wisconsin for 11th place out of 15 teams in the tournament, which was hosted by Michigan State.

“It gives us a great benchmark as to where we’re at,” Manning said.

“I think we did really well. We had a lot of anxiety.”

The Cyclones fired rounds of 316, 306 and 321 for a total of score of 943 for the tournament. Louisiana State won the tournament, carding a 903, followed by Michigan State, Kansas State, Texas Christian and Arkansas. Iowa State placed ahead of Iowa, Indiana and Minnesota.

Manning was very happy with her team’s second-round 306. That score was the seventh best among second-round team scores. However, in the third round, fatigue started to become a factor, Manning said.

“For February, shooting 306 is really good,” she said. “I think fatigue caught up with us on the last round. The shots were just tougher.”

Senior Leanne Owens paced the Cyclones with a score of 231, placing her in a tie with three other golfers for 23rd. Right behind Owens was junior Lisa Meshke, who shot 233, good enough for 29th place in the tournament.

Sophomore Louise Kenney also finished in the top 50, scoring 236 and tying for 41st place. Freshman Christi Athas finished with a 247 and sophomore Erica Dahl scored a 258.

Even though Manning was pleased with her team’s play, she knows there are certain areas that can be improved.

“Obviously we need to work on our short game, which is to be expected,” Manning said.

“It will be easier to visualize when we practice now because we’ve had some competition. It’s something we can take advantage of.”

Before the Central District Challenge, the Cyclones played a dual with Nebraska to get some playing experience, since they had not been able to shoot outside so far this year.

It was a match play competition in which Iowa State won only two out of six matches. Manning said she wasn’t discouraged.

“It served its purpose, which was to get us some competition,” said Manning. “We shot a 319 and [Nebraska] shot a 307, but we fired 20 shots better than last year.

“Overall it was a great trip. The weather was also great.”

Up next, Iowa State will travel to Irvine, Calif., to play in the Anteater Invitational, March 15-16.