MIAMI (January 25, 2017) -- FIU golf added three student-athletes to the ranks for the 2017-18 campaign. Colombian Carolina Andrade, Spaniard Agueda Cortilla and Floridian Gabriela Powel will join the Panthers after the summer to compete for the women's golf program.
Andrade, who played her prep golf in Winter Garden, Florida, at Windermere Prep, won the girls 16-18 Florida Junior Tournament at Orange County National last May. She shot a four-under 212 (71, 72, 69) in the event. She was also a member of Headmaster's List in both semesters as a junior and to start her senior year, and the Honor Roll at Gimnasio La Montana in Bogota in two semesters. She is a member of the Spanish Honor Society as a senior this school year. She plans to pursue a degree in international business, with the goal of becoming a professional golfer and pursuing a postgraduate degree.
"I watched her play in Colombia. She is a great ball striker and is very athletic," said FIU Head Coach Joe Vogel. "She is fairly long off the tee. With her older brother already playing college golf in the United States, she has a good grasp of college golf."
Cortilla is a multi-sport athlete, with a background in soccer and hockey, but has been playing golf since the age of five. Last year, she won both the Under-18 Catalunya and Comunidad Valenciana Championships, sitting atop the Gran Prix girl's rankings for the 2015-16 season. She also wants to pursue an international business degree at FIU, and a career as a golfer in addition to more academic work towards an MBA. Her brother, Ferran, is in his sophomore year on the men's golf team at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa.
"I'm very excited to have her," said Vogel. "She is a very solid player. She has a great short game and has great work ethic. I expect her to get in the lineup right away. She comes from a great golf background and is an exceptional student."
Powell, who attended William T. Dwyer High in West Palm Beach, competed in several South Florida PGA Junior Tournaments, including a sixth-place finish in the fall Championship in Doral for the 13-18 year-old age group. Despite playing just three seasons, she has worked her average down to three-over par and the sky is the limit on her potential with the Panthers. A former basketball player-turned-golfer, her athleticism and development on the golf course had not gone unnoticed by the Panthers.
"She is easily the strongest player I have ever brought in here," noted Vogel. "She is athletic and is the raw talent of the three. She has not been playing golf for very long, but she has really focused in on it and we look forward to her developing here. She hits is harder than any player I've ever had on our roster.
"I expect these players to come in and really compete for tournament spots. That will make us much more competitive at practice and in tournaments in the future."
FIU returns to the tee box in the spring semester by competing in the Florida Challenge, a one-day, 36-hole event against the other Division I programs in the state in Ocala, Florida. That event, the first of FIU's five spring-semester events before the Conference USA Championships, takes place on Monday, January 30.
#######
About FIU Athletics: FIU Athletics is home to more than 400 student-athletes in 18 different sports, and is a proud member of Conference USA. Athletic events are played in seven different venues on FIU's campuses (Modesto A. Maidique and Biscayne Bay), including FIU Arena and the FIU Football Stadium.
About FIU: Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. It is a public research university with colleges and schools that offers more than 180 bachelor's, master's and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida's anchor institutions, FIU contributes $9.8 billion each year to the local economy. FIU is Worlds Ahead in finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission. FIU has awarded over 200,000 degrees and enrolls more than 54,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell, FIU@I-75, and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. FIU also supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA and has over 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.
