GOODYEAR, Ariz. – The Western Washington University women’s golf team closed out the regular-season schedule with a 12th-place finish at the Mustang Intercollegiate hosted by Western New Mexico University Monday and Tuesday at Palm Valley Golf Club.
The Vikings moved up one spot after the first round, finishing with a team score of 38-over-par 614. WWU was 12th in the 20-team field and 2nd-best among the four Great Northwest Athletic Conference schools in the competition. Dallas Baptist maintained its first round lead to finish the 36-hole tournament at 12-under-par 564 for a 6-stroke victory over 2nd-place California Baptist (-6, 570).
“Today was again a better round and provided a good stepping-stone for the team heading into the GNAC Championships,” said head coach Bo Stephan. “We are going to spend the next week and a half fine-tuning our game and work hard to make improvements before we head over to Coeur d’Alene.”
Freshman Megan Billeter (Spokane, WA/Mt. Spokane) led the Vikings contingent tying for 42nd place in the 103-player field, turning in an 8-over-par 152 for the tournament. After firing a career-low round of 1-over-par 73 on Monday, Billeter was 7-over on Tuesday with a 79. Overall the freshman finished the tournament with 5 birdies, tied for 21st-most in the tournament.
A trio of Vikings finished in a tie for 48th place at +10 for the tournament, with junior Annie Leete (Oak Harbor, WA/Eastern Washington) recording the low round on Tuesday with a 2-over-par 74. Leete was one of WWU’s most consistent golfers during the tournament with 24 pars, and finally broke through with a birdie on Tuesday.
“Annie hit the ball really well all tournament, and broke through today with a really nice round,” added Stephan.
Junior Hannah Drake (Pocatello, ID/Century) shot a 3-over-par 75 in the final round to finish at 10-over-par for the tournament. Senior Jenn Paul (Bellingham, WA) was also at +10 for the tournament with matching rounds of 5-over-par 77.
Evelyn Arguelles of Dallas Baptist and Jocelyn Chee Yi Min of California Baptist tied for individual medalist honors finishing the tournament at 4-under-par 140. DBU had four players in the top 5 en route to winning the team title.
WWU competes next at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships that will be held April 23-24 at Coeur d’Alene Golf Resort in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The Vikings have finished 2nd in each of the last two GNAC Championships after winning the title five consecutive years from 2011-15.
Courtesy of WWU Athletics.
