CMS Women's Golf Finishes Third at NCAA Division III Championships

GolfStat Scoring

HOWEY-IN-THE-HILLS, Fla. - After the third round was erased due to a hole deemed unplayable, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's golf team regrouped and earned a third-place finish in an NCAA Division III Championship that was shortened to 54 holes on Friday at the Mission Inn Resort and Club.

CMS ended up in third place at +67, 10 shots behind winner George Fox at +57, and five shots behind WashU at +62. After Thursday's third round that ended up erased, the Athenas had trimmed George Fox's lead from five to three, but went back to five-shot margin on Friday, and ended up finishing 10 back. 

The third-place finish is still the second-best performance in program history, behind only the national title won in 2018. The Athenas had the lead at several points in Friday's play with a chance to earn the programs second title, but George Fox closed in impressive fashion with a -4 over its final 10 holes to earn the win.   

Stella Cheng was the top individual finisher for CMS, earning a tie for 11th at +14, nine shots behind individual winner Annie Mascot of WashU. Esther Lee tied for 13th with a +15. while Jeissy Lee tied for 29th (out of 152) with a +21. 

The third round was canceled after a single hole (No. 6) was deemed unplayable later in Thursday's play, due to its unfavorable hole placement. CMS and most of the top teams in the top 10 had passed the sixth hole and finished their rounds, but later groups couldn't finish and the entire third round was wiped clean from the scoring. Had the round counted, CMS would have finished second, as WashU had fallen well off the pace, but the Bears took advantage of their reprieve with the only sub-300 round of the tournament (299) to move up to second. 

Carnegie Mellon ended up in fourth place at +71, while Emory was fifth at +74, and two SCIAC teams followed in sixth and seventh, with Redlands at +75 and Pomona-Pitzer at +82.

CMS will return its entire NCAA lineup next year as it tries to compete for the national title again.