Warwickshire champion seventh in Peggy Kirk Bell Invitational

Abbey Gittings, Nicole Whitmore

help Nova SE win five out of six

Warwickshire county champion Abbey Gittings from Tamworth, a freshman student at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, finished seventh in a good class college field of 77 players at the Peggy Kirk Bell Invitational tournament at Alaqua Country Club, Longwood, Winter Springs in Florida.

Abbey, pictured above, had rounds of 76, 77 and 73 for a total of 226 over the par-72, 5934yd course.

Team-mate Nicole Whitmore, a junior year student from Milton Keynes, came 11th on 230 with scores of 75, 77 and 78.

Farther down the field came Melissa Siviter (Belmont Abbey College), a freshman student from the West Midlands, with scores of 79, 82 and 83 for 244, which earned her a share of 41st place.

The very good efforts of Abbey and Nicole enabled Nova Southeastern to win the team title by 12 shots from Daytona State College with Belmont Abbey fifth of 13 teams.

Nova Southeastern, the NCAA Division 2 champions last year, are certainly on a roll. They have won five of their last six tournaments.

The Nova performance was spearheaded by Sandra Changkija who won the individual honours by the impressive margin of eight strokes with a total of seven-under-par 209 (70-69-70).