Nicole Hansen and Lindsey Thiele captured Big Ten Women's Co-Golfer-of-the-Week honors, the conference office announced on Wednesday, Sept. 22.
Hansen and Thiele earned the league's weekly award after sharing the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational individual title by shooting career-best 54-hole totals of 219. The duo opened the 10-team, 62-golfer event with career-best rounds of 70 on the par-72, 6,221-yard layout at Colbert Hills Golf Club in Manhattan, Kan. (Sept. 20-21).on Monday.
Thiele, a sophomore from Wahoo, Neb., followed with the second-best round of her career with a 71 (-1) in Monday's second round to take the lead heading into Tuesday's final round. She closed with a 78, which was good enough to hold on to a share of medalist honors with Hansen. It was the first top-10 finish of Thiele's career and outpaced her previous career-best finish (23rd, 229) at the 2021 Allstate Sugar Bowl Intercollegiate by 10 strokes.
Hansen, a redshirt junior from Bloomingdale, Ill., managed a second-round 77, before charging up the leader board with an even-par final round of 72 in more challenging scoring conditions on Tuesday. Her 72 was also the second-best round of her college career. Hansen, who had played in just one tournament as an individual in her first three seasons at Nebraska, cut 24 strokes off her previous career best (243). Her previous career best individual finish was 90th at the 2020 Westbrook Spring Invitational in Peoria, Ariz.
Hansen and Thiele helped Nebraska's four-player "B" lineup capture the tournament title with a three-round total of 885, which was six strokes better than runner-up Sam Houston and 13 strokes better than third-place Kansas State. Kansas finished fourth at 899.
Nebraska's team championship marked the first time in 11 all-time trips to the Marilynn Smith/Sunflower Invitational that a Husker team came home with a title.
Nicole Hansen and Lindsey Thiele were Co-Big Ten Players of the Week (Sept. 23).