CMS Women's Golf in Third After Opening Round of SCIAC Championships

GolfStat Scoring

BEAUMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's golf team battled tough, windy conditions on the opening round of the SCIAC Championships on Sunday at the Morongo Golf Club at Tukwet Canyon, and stayed in striking distance just nine shots back with two rounds still to play.

The Athenas finished with a 318 on the day (+30), but ended up only nine behind co-leaders Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer, after being behind by 15 or more strokes for most of the day. Cal Lutheran is four shots behind CMS in fourth place at +34. Only 12 of the 47 competitors managed to shoot below 80 in the difficult conditions that led to a mentally taxing opening round.

Irene Jun shot a 74 (+2) and finished the day in a three-way tie for the individual lead with Hannah Jugar of Redlands and Katelyn Vo of Pomona-Pitzer. Tiffany Hu also stands in the top 10, in a four-way tie for eighth place at +6 after the first 18 holes. 

Jun had a great stretch on the front nine, recording three straight birdies on No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6. She added a fourth birdie on the 16th to get her to +1, before settling for a +2 after a par on 18. 

Hu had a strong closing stretch for the Athenas, tallying a birdie on No. 16, and then sinking a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 18 to move her into the top 10. Stella Cheng and Grace Lu were the third and fourth scorers for CMS at +11, which has them tied for 16th. Jeissy Lee closed out with birdies on No. 16 and No. 18 to try to build some momentum heading into the final two rounds. 

The second round of the SCIAC Championship will get underway tomorrow at 10 a.m., with the final round on Tuesday.