North Texas junior golfer Lauren Cox received a bid to the NCAA tournament for women’s golf and will represent the Mean Green on May 6-8. Cox will be accompanied by five other student athletes competing in the Norman Regional.
“I am thrilled to see Lauren receive an at-large bid to the NCAA’s,” women’s golf head coach Michael Akers said in a press release. “She has played great this year against very good competition. This bid proves we are doing the right thing by scheduling the best possible tournaments. You cannot earn the ranking it takes to get bids if you do not play a competitive schedule. I anticipate our team to have the depth next year to be in the position to receive a bid.”
Akers has emphasized his strategy to make the regular season jam-packed with the toughest opponents. In doing so, it would make performances like Cox’s difficult to go unnoticed. The Mauriceville High School product will be the second player in program history to obtain a bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The other player to have received a bid was Randi Gauthier, who received two consecutive bids in 2002 and 2003. He competed in the Central Regional in East Lansing, Michigan for the first bid and the Central Regional again for the second bid, competing in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Cox currently holds the school record for best round after shooting a 6-under par at The Bruzzy to break the 30-year-old accolade earlier this semester. Additionally, Cox and three other student athletes will be representing the Group of 5. The players who will be competing are Michaela Fletcher (Memphis), Brigitte Dunne (Southern Methodist), Lorena Tseng (Tulsa), Han-Hsuan Yu (Oklahoma State) and Lianna Bailey (Oklahoma State).
“I’m very excited to keep playing and to continue my season,” Cox said in a press release. “I’m excited to compete against the best of the best. I feel like we have been all semester long, so I’m ready for it. You play the golf course and [Akers] and [assistant coach Krista Puisite] have both been to the course. We’re going to prepare for it and put three good rounds together.”
Featured Image: Mean Green junior Lauren Cox practices her putting at UNT’s indoor golf practice facility. Image by: Will Baldwin.