Oregon women’s golf recorded its best finish thanks to senior Johnna Nealy’s even-par 72 Wednesday at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational.
The Ducks finished the tournament, held at the 6,192-yard Sahalee Golf and Country Club in Sammamish, Wash., in a second-place tie with host team Washington with a 918.
Finishing in first place was No. 8 Oklahoma, 19 strokes ahead of Oregon and Washington.
Oregon’s best finish before this at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational was in the mid-1990s when the Ducks finished third two years in a row (1993, 1994).
Nealy set a career-best by tying for third place in the individual competition. She was still 10 strokes behind first-place Karin Sjodin of Oklahoma State.
The only mistake that Nealy made during the day was a double bogey on the par-4 14th, but she recovered with a birdie on the 18th to finish at even par. Her 72 was the second-lowest round of the day.
Oregon’s Kim McCready also had a personal best seventh-place finish at 226. Her best finish before this was a tie for 13th at the 2004 Duck Invitational.
Junior Erin Andrews tied for 25th with a 235. The Ducks threw out her final round score of 84.
Other Ducks recording scores were junior Michelle Timpani and freshman Victoria Wenslow, who both shot an 81. Timpani tied for 31st with a 237, while Wenslow was 62nd at 251.
Behind Oregon, USC finished fourth at 926, followed by No. 9 Pepperdine at 930, Nevada-Las Vegas at 932 and Washington State and San Francisco tied for seventh. Stanford, ranked 20th in the nation, finished with a 940 and No. 21 California finished with a 941.
Oregon made a prolific start at the invitational on Monday and Tuesday. The second round of play, which saw McCready card an even par-72, helped Oregon climb above Pepperdine, who led the Ducks after the first round. As a collegian, it was a career-best round for McCready, who finished tied for third individually with Kay Hoey of Long Beach State.
Andrews and Nealy found themselves tied for 12th after shooting 4-over 76 and 6-over 78 respectively.
On Tuesday, Oklahoma State carded a 301, bringing its tournament total to 597, good enough for first place going into Wednesday.
Much like Oregon, Southern California leap-frogged Pepperdine with a 301 finish to find themselves in third at 605 before the last day of the tournament. Pepperdine sat in fourth place, trailing by nine strokes.
Heading into the final day, Washington State continued its upstart ways and moved ahead of No. 2 Washington (617) on the leaderboard, with a score of 615. Stanford (620) trailed Washington in seventh place by five strokes followed by San Francisco (622), UNLV (625), BYU (627), California (628), Long Beach State (629), Oregon State (657) and Stirling (Scotland) (687).
For the Ducks, the magic number was seven — the amount of strokes that separated them from the first-place Cowgirls.
In the first round Monday, Nealy was one of Oregon’s top-10 finishers after carding a 1-over 73, good enough to tie for second place. McCready and Andrews joined Nealy in the top 10 going into Tuesday’s play. McCready shot a 2-over 74, placing her in a tie for fifth, whereas Andrews’s finished tied for ninth at 3-over 75. Andrews penciled an eye-sore triple bogey on the par-4 seventh hole but rebounded with two birdies to keep pace with Veronica Felibert of Southern California.
Oregon’s highest counter of the day went to junior Michelle Timpani, who found herself in a tie for 25th place after finishing at a 6-over 78.
The first round belonged to No. 8 Oklahoma State (296). The Cowgirls finished first as a team and featured individual first-place leader Karin Sjodin, who shot a 2-under 70. Nealy would trail Sjodin by three strokes going into the second round. Oklahoma State enjoyed a comfortable two-stroke lead over Pepperdine — sitting two strokes ahead of the Ducks in second place.
Aside from non-conference opponents, the Ducks finished the first round atop the seven total Pacific-10 Conference teams at the tournament. The Ducks topped Southern California, who finished fourth at 303, followed by No. 20 Stanford at fifth with 308. Washington tied Washington State for sixth at 310 to round out the top 10 for Pac-10 teams.

Scott J. Adams is a freelance reporter for the Daily Emerald