After winning its first two tournaments this fall, the SIU women’s golf team fell down to earth at the University of Missouri’s Johnie Imes Invitational hosted in Columbia, Mo.

The Salukis finished 12th out of 15 teams with a three-round score of 915.

SIU finished ahead of only Florida Gulf Coast University, Oklahoma City University and Redlands Community College.

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SIU shot a 316 in the first round, putting itself in a hole it never got out of.

“The first round was the only mishap,” head coach Alexis Mihelich said. “No one played good in the first round.”

The Salukis bounced back with scores of 300 and 299 in the second and third rounds, but did not rise above 12th place.

Missouri took first with a score of 846. Kansas State University finished second with a score of 850.

Missouri Valley Conference rivals Wichita State University, Bradley University and Illinois State University finished eighth, ninth and 10th respectively.

Sophomore Brooke Cusumano led SIU with a score of 227. Cusumano tied for 44th overall with sophomore Katherine Gravel-Coursol of Kansas State and senior Brianna Cooper of Illinois State.

Junior Mattie Lindner tied for 54th with a score of 231. Sophomore Kristie Yang and freshman Alice Ho shot 232 and 233, respectively.

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Yang finished tied for 57th and Ho tied for 60th.

Sophomore Xianmei Jin tied for 68th with a score of 238.

Freshman Connie Jaffrey of Kansas State took first overall with a score of 208.

The Salukis will next tee off at the Diane Thomason Invitational in Iowa City, Iowa Oct. 4-5.

Thomas can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @tdonleyDE