ELK HORN Neb.— The South Dakota women's golf team sits in seventh place out of ten teams after an up-and-down day at the Stampede at the Creek in Elk Horn, Nebraska today.  The first day of this two-day event featured two rounds of golf and an eclipse.  South Dakota battled near the top of the leaderboard for much of the afternoon before falling into seventh place in the evening.
 
Pacing USD on the day was Catie Nekola.  She turned in a two-round score of 153, which saw her finish 9-over par and tied for 12^th place.  Nekola was in the top five much of the day after she knocked in back-to-back birdies in round one.  But she had four bogeys in her last five holes to fall out of the top ten.
 
Just behind Nekola was Ella Greenberg who turned in two five-over par rounds of 77 to finish tied for 16^th with an overall score of 10-over par 154.  Greenberg had four birdies in the first round and had another in the second round.  Lara Gehring nearly eclipsed her best performance as a collegian with her 2-over par 74 round in round one.  She finished the day with a 12-over par score of 156, good for a tie for 20^th place.
 
Emma Henningsson was next for USD.  She had three birdies on the day and finished with a 13-over par 157 over two rounds.  That saw her tie for 26^th place.   Ava Schroeder finished tied for 42^nd with a 17-over par score of 161.  She also had three birdies on the day.  Alexa Wingnean was playing well through 27 holes, but struggled over the final nine.  She posted a 20-over par score of 164, good for a tie for 54^th place.
 
Avery O'Donnell competed as an individual for South Dakota.  She matched Wingnean's score of 20-over par 165 and tied for 54^th place.
 
The Coyotes finished with a team score of 43-over par 619, which saw them finish in seventh out of ten teams.  USD is just three strokes from fourth place.  North Dakota State pulled away in what was a very tight team race for much of the day, posting a 22-over par score of 598.  NDSU's Jo Baranczyk, who entered the day listed as the Bison's #6 golfer, leads the field with a score of 1-over par.  The Stampede at the Creek, hosted by Omaha, uses a unique play-six, score-four format.
 
Tomorrow's third round tees off at 9:15am.  You can follow live results here.  Follow @SDCoyotesWGolf on Twitter/X for live updates as well.