HELENA, Mont. – The Montana Tech women's golf team finished the first round of the Carroll College Invitational at Bill Roberts Golf Course today. The Orediggers are in second place and 23 strokes behind Rocky Mountain.

The Battlin' Bears finished the first round with the top four individual spots lead by Claire Wright who posted a 69 (-3). Rocky finished with a team score of 298 (+10). The Orediggers shot a team 321 (+33).

"Overall I'm really proud of the way we hung together today and shot a very solid team score," said head coach Sean Ryan.

"Our expectations are really high because we know we have a ton of potential, but we grinded it out a 321 team score which is the second lowest round in school history overall and lowest in relation to par."

Kodie Hoagland shot a 77 (+5) and is in a tie for fifth place. Cierra Sundheim shot an opening 78 (+6) and is in seventh place.

"Kodie and Cierra played great today and led us from the start. I know we can do even better tomorrow, we just keep getting better and better every round and that's something to be very excited about."

Emma Woods is in T10 after a first round 82 (+10). Emily Kelly finished with an 84 (+12) and is in T16. Playing as an individual and not part of the team score, Franchi Ceartin is in T13 shooting an 83 (+1).

The final round of the Carroll College Invitational is tomorrow.