ELLIE GIVENS' LATE SLIPS COST HER
TOP-THREE FINISH IN ALABAMA

Darlington's Ellie Givens, a 19-year-old first-year student at the University of Denver, let a golden chance of a top-three finish slip through her fingers over the last few holes of the Women's Sun Belt Conference college championship at The Shoals Golf Club, Muscle Shoals in Alabama (Wednesday, USA time).
After opening rounds of 75 and 73, including seven birdies, Ellie was lying in joint fourth place, five shots behind the leader, team-mate Stephanie Sherlock, with one round to go.
But she slumped to a closing 79 over the par-72, 6064yd course for an 11-over-par total of 227 and ninth place, still a creditable finish for a freshman in a quality field of 54 players, but not nearly as high as it looked like being.
Ellie had a double bogey 6 at the fifth in her first round, and a triple bogey 7 at the same hole in her second round, which an eagle 3 at the ninth could not quite cancel out.
In the final round, Ellie started well with a birdie 4 at the long fourth but her troubles started to pile up at the short sixth which cost her a double bogey 5.
At the par-5 12th, she ran up up a triple bogey 8 and dropped further shots at the 14th, 17th and 18th for a sad inward half of six-over-par 42.
Ellie, last year's English Under-18 girls' champion, did finish the tournament with a smile when team-mate Stephanie Sherlock won the individual title by 10 strokes with scores of 70, 73 and 65 for eight-under-208 and the Denver University team won the team title by 42 shots with a total of 872 from Arkansas-Little Rock (914) and South Alabama (917) in a field of 11 squads.
Denver will now go forward to the West regional championship and hopefully the NCAA women's championship after that.
Shirley Harvey (South Alabama) from Ballyclare, Northern Ireland, slipped from joint 10th to joint 15th in the final standings on 231 with a final round of 79 after earlier efforts of 74 and 78.
Claire Leathers (Middle Tennessee State) from Aylesbury finished joint 29th on 239 with scores of 76, 83 and 77.

LEADING FINAL TOTALS
Par 216 (3 x 72) 6064yd.
Individuals
208 Stephanie Sherlock (Denver) 70 73 65.
218 Paula Hurtado (Florida International) 71 77 70.
219 Elin Andersson (South Alabama) 74 73 72.
Other totals:
227 Ellie Givens (Denver) 75 73 79 (jt 9th).
231 Shirley Harvey (South Alabama) 74 78 79 (jt 15th).
236 Clara Leathers (Middle Tennessee State) 76 83 77 (jt 29th of 54).
Teams
872 Denver.
914 Arkansas-Little Rock
917 South Alabama.
11 teams took part.