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Perakis leads the way for Bradley at the Jackrabbit Invitational

Maria Perakis lines up a putt. Photo courtesy of Bradley Athletics

While Bradley students were on spring break, the women’s golf team was in Boulder City, Nevada for the Jackrabbit Invitational, where they finished in 10th out of 16 teams. 

The Braves played the 54-hole tournament over two days and freshman Maria Perakis led the way, finishing in a tie for 29th. She improved each round, carding scores of 77-76-72.

A big talking point for the Braves early this season has been the transition from practicing and playing inside to now being outside. Perakis was able to find her groove this past week in Nevada.

“Arizona was the first time back out on grass after the offseason and I was really working out technical aspects of my swing with my longer clubs,” Perakis said. “This week in Vegas, I was able to get into a groove with my swing and put myself in good positions to score.”  

The winds caused havoc throughout the first two rounds on day one of the invitational, but calmed down in the final round, allowing players to be more aggressive. Perakis took the opposite approach in her final round leading to her best score of the tournament, an even-par 72.

“Some of the par 5s were very tempting to go for in two shots, but they had a lot of hazards around them,” Perakis said. “In the final round, I just had to remind myself to take the safer option, which gave me better looks at birdies.”

While the week may not have started off how they wanted, the Braves were able to work through the hard times to have a good takeaway from the week in Las Vegas. Head coach Halley Morrell loved the fight she saw from her team this last week.

“It was a rough start, but we were able to grind out the last two rounds and find a lot of our game to take a lot of positives away after our first round,” Morrell said. “Harriet [Barker] played well, Maria played well and ‘grind’ is the best word I could say.”

Bradley was one under in its last 10 holes of the tournament, which Morrell said made her feel proud leaving Nevada.

Barker, a sophomore from England, played in just her third tournament as a Brave. She finished with a career best of 45th place, thanks to another career-best round of two-over-par 74 in the final round on Tuesday.

Senior Megan Welch finished tied for 54th on the week with rounds of 79-77-77, continuing her streak of 21 consecutive rounds under par.

Junior Mara Flaherty finished right behind Welch in a tie for 59th with rounds of 72, 84 and 78. Senior Elyse Emerzian rounded out the team totals with a score of 252 and finished 82nd.

This next week at the Diane Daugherty Invitational hosted by Southern Illinois, the Braves will be honoring the lives lost in the tragic van accident involving the University of Southwest golf teams. While on their way back from a tournament, the van was involved in an accident that killed six golfers, a coach and two others.

The team has made bows with the University of Southwest school colors and will wear those next week.

“It hit the college golf community hard on Wednesday when we heard and found out about what happened,” Morrell said. “We take van rides all the time, and so [we learned] to appreciate each moment we have with each other and to not take anything for granted because life can change so quickly. We are commemorating the lives lost and will be playing for them all season long.”

The Diane Daugherty Invitational tees off on Monday, March 28.

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