Published: April 20, 2009 08:57 am      

Saints 8th in MCC golf

OSKALOOSA — Ashford finished eighth out of nine teams Sunday after the fourth and final round of the Midwest Collegiate Conference men’s golf tournament Sunday at Oskaloosa Golf Course.

St. Ambrose shot a final-round 286 to overtake Grand View and win the team title with 1,166. Grand View shot a 299 Sunday to finish at 1,176. Ashford finished with a 340 for a 1,297 total.

Adam White of St. Ambrose won medalist honors by four strokes with a 283.

Clinton native Mike Hansen, a senior, shot an 83 to lead the way for Ashford with a tie for 29th. Mike Reddersdorf (81) and Nick Newburg (88) tied for 33rd. Freshman Justin Fritz closed with an 88 to take sole possession of 39th.



Saints’ Smith wins high jump

DUBUQUE — Freshman A.J. Smith won the high jump at 1.93 meters Saturday, and his Ashford teammates won the 3,200-meter relay to lead the team at the Spartan Open at the University of Dubuque.

Andrew Drinkall, John Gaffney, Arvell Barginear and Ademola Are broke Ashford’s school record, winning the 3,200 relay in 8 minutes, 22.63 seconds.

Smith also finished fifth in the javelin, with junior Keven Griffin Jr. taking sixth for Ashford.

Natalie Solms took fourth for the Ashford women in the high jump, while Laura Minertz was seventh in the 100-meter dash (13.16) and Erika Jakobsen (5,000) and Kim Fabry (long jump) each placed eighth.

Competing at the Augustana Meet of Champions in Rock Island, Ill., freshman Aaron Yerk placed fifth in the decathlon.



Softball team loses twice

CLINTON — Mount Mercy defeated Ashford 6-1 and 3-1 in Midwest Collegiate Conference softball Saturday at Ericksen Center.

Mount Mercy (22-13, 9-7 conference) stole 12 bases and had three bunt singles in the doubleheader.

Rebecca Smith struck out 11 Ashford batters in Game 1. Nichole Salazar broke up her no-hit attempt with a leadoff triple to right field to lead off the seventh inning. She then scored on Jamie Gillespie’s single.

Mount Mercy scored its runs in groups of three in the third and fourth innings. Brianna Williams and Sheena Canady each hit a two-run double for Mount Mercy.

Ashford (1-34, 1-22) had scoring chances in each of the first four innings in the second game but scored just once. Whitney Bauer had three hits for the Saints.

The two teams were rained out of their Sunday doubleheader. Those games will be made up Friday.

Baseball game rained out

CLINTON — Ashford’s nine-inning baseball game scheduled for Sunday against Mount Mercy at Alliant Energy Field was rained out. No makeup date was announced.