Talley’s Big 12 Championship performance earns her more postseason play

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Madison Talley, junior, chips on to hole 14 at Colbert Hills on Oct. 13, 2015 during a team practice. (File Photo by Evert Nelson | The Collegian)

It had been more than a decade since a K-State women’s golfer finished in the top 10 at the Big 12 Championship.

Junior Madison Talley did more than that as she earned herself a spot on the All Big 12 team, finishing fourth after shooting a 2-under-par 214 at Dominion Country Club in San Antonio over the weekend.

In addition to her tournament success, Talley rewrote some of the K-State record books with her score of 214 over 54 holes, which was the best score recorded by a Wildcat in the Big 12 Tournament. The score also put Talley at eighth in program history.

While Talley showed up strong, it was not a great overall weekend for the team. The Wildcats finished eighth after shooting a 24-over-par 888 as a team. Three strokes separated the Wildcats from sixth place.

“I am very proud of Madison,” K-State head coach Kristi Knight, said. “She had a great Big 12 Championship and season overall. But as a team, that was not the way we wanted to finish today. We did not take advantage of the opportunity.”

K-State finished the first two rounds in fifth place with six strokes between the Wildcats and the fourth-place TCU Horned Frogs.

Sunday did not go well for K-State, however, and the Wildcats shot 299, the worst conference score, plummeting them to second-to-last place.

Juniors Katherine Gravel-Coursol and Paige Nelson tied for 35th with an 11-over-par 227, while sophomore Connie Jaffrey and freshman Chloe Weir tied for 40th after shooting a 12-over-par 228.

Talley will advance to the NCAA regionals as one of 24 players from across the country. This will be the second postseason appearance of her college career.

“Making a regional is a reward for having a great season,” Knight said. “(Assistant coach Stew Burke), and I are proud of her. We are excited to take her down to Baton Rouge and see her play that golf course.”

Talley will be the No. 3 seed at the Baton Rouge Regional in Louisiana on May 5-7 at the University Club.

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Tim Everson was born in Wichita, KS in 1994. Before fifth grade he moved up to Manhattan for one year before settling in Riley, KS where he graduated from Riley County High School in 2012. Tim has worked for the Collegian since spring of 2014 and took over as Sports Editor during the summer of 2015. Tim loves sports, music, movies and good food when he can get it.