Allison Leigeb won the individual title while leading the Northern Kentucky women’s golf team past the field at the NKU Fall Classic on Monday afternoon at Elks Run Golf Club.
Leigeb carded rounds of 75-73-76 en route to an 11-over par performance that topped the leaderboard by seven strokes. Her 224 total was a mere two strokes off of Northern Kentucky’s 54-hole record set last season by Kennedy Windlan in the Atlantic Sun Conference Championship.
“Allie played fantastic on the way to her first collegiate win,” said head coach Daryl Landrum. “The team played good, solid golf and took care of business.”
The Norse had four of the top five finishers after Ryleigh Waltz (+19), Sarah Kellam (+23) and MacKenzie Laumann (+24) claimed third, fourth and fifth overall, respectively.
Leigeb, Waltz and Kellam were joined by Shelby Power, who finished 14th at 34-over, and Tara Clark who tied for 17th (+43). The quintet combined to shoot rounds of 316-304-319 for a combined 939, which is the second-best 54-hole total in program history.
Laumann teamed with Kristen Smith (t-10th, +31), Macy Wright (15th, + 35), Mimi Cheepborisut (21st, +51) and Taylor Schwarz (22nd, +52) to card rounds of 331-328-324. NKU’s second squad trailed Dayton’s top team by a mere three strokes.
Northern Kentucky will be back in action on Sept. 21-22 at the Cardinal Classic sponsored by Ball State. The tournament will be held in Yorktown, Ind.
NKU men in contention after first round play
Rounds of 1-under and 3-over par on Monday put the Northern Kentucky University men’s golf team in eighth-place and in a position to climb the leaderboard during the final round of the Joe Feaganes Marshall Invitational.
Senior Clayton Portz led the display with scores of 70-69, wrapping up the day at 3-under and in 10th place. Portz steadily recorded six birdies and just three bogeys.
Junior Matthew Wetherill paced the scoring in the opening round with a 69 (-2) of his own. Freshman Logan Gamm and junior Jacob Brinker recorded countable scores of 71 (E) and 73 (+2) to help NKU to a 283 in the round.
Brinker followed with an even-par 71 and Gamm with a 2-over 73 on the second 18 holes. Jackson Frame registered the final score, a 3-over 74, in NKU’s 287.
Participating as an individual, Jacob Poore notched rounds of 74-70. At 2-over par for the tourney, he sits with Brinker and Gamm in a 12-way tie for 36th.
With a 76 in round 2, Wetherill slid to 48th. Frame is 73rd after recording a 75 in the opening round.
Belmont tops the leaderboard at 13-under and Ohio is seven shots back at 6-under. However, seven teams lie within eight strokes of OU in second.
An 8:30 a.m. shotgun start will kick off the final round Tuesday morning.
Fleak earns second Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week honor
Senior Northern Kentucky University men’ soccer goalkeeper A.J. Fleak earned Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week honors for the second week in a row, the league office announced on Monday.
On Sunday, Fleak shutout IPFW, hauling in five saves on 21 shots faced. The shutout was Fleak’s third of the season and his third in four matches. The clean sheet was the 13th of his career as a Norse moving him into a tie for third all-time in program history with Nate Madden (2001-04) and Jeb Snyder (1990-93).
Fleak has played every minute in goal for the Norse this season compiling a 3-2-0 record allowing only four goals, hauling in 25 saves on 79 shots faced while sporting a .780 goals-against average. Fleak’s 25 saves would currently be tied for 18th in the country and his save percentage (.862) would rank 19th if NKU was able to be ranked due to its final year of NCAA Division I reclassification.
This is Fleak’s second Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week honor in a row. He earned the first honor following a week two performance that saw him earn two wins with two shutouts against Memphis (August 31) and Saint Francis University (September 4), while allowing only one goal in a three-game span.
The Norse return to action on Friday, September 18, at Dayton with kickoff set for 7 p.m.
From NKU Athletics