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CMS women's golf will look for another top-10 finish at nationals
CMS women's golf will look for another top-10 finish at nationals
Posted: May 01, 2023

CMS Women's Golf Earns Invitation to NCAA Division III Championships

CLAREMONT, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's golf team received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III Championships and will head to nationals from May 9-12 at Mission Inn Resort in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida, the NCAA announced this afternoon.

The Athenas came into the selections ranked No. 7 in the WGCA Coaches poll, but were unsure of their status for a bid after finishing in third-place in the SCIAC (behind No. 2 Redlands and No. 6 Pomona-Pitzer, which earned the SCIAC's automatic bid).

Only five at-large team selections are available for the NCAA Division III Championship, and Redlands, Emory, WashU and Carnegie Mellon all rank in the top five in the WGCA poll, leaving just one spot available among several teams ranked in the top 20. TheAthenas were able to earn the last spot based on its strong year-round performance, including defeating No. 2 Redlands and No. 4 George Fox at the Westbrook Invite at the Lakes in March.   

Now that it is safely in, CMS will try to improve on its ninth-place finish from a year ago. The Athenas won the national title in 2018 and finished fourth in 2019, before the pandemic wiped out the 2020 and 2021 championships. 

CMS will head to Florida peaking at the right time, after winning the three-round SCIAC Championship from April 23-25 at Olivas Links in Ventura. The SCIAC determines its automatic bid based on seven rounds, including two-round tournaments in the regular season in February and April, and the Athenas were unable to dig out of their deficit, which began when No. 1 Stella Cheng was unavailable in February, and a disqualification cost the Athenas another 15 strokes in their first round.  

During the three rounds at Olivas Links, CMS set a program record over a 54-hole tournament by finishing at -8, shooting in the red all three days. Esther Lee was the runaway winner of individual medalist honors, breaking the SCIAC record by shooting -10, while Irene Jun was fourth, Cheng was seventh and Jeissy Lee was ninth.