CMS Women's Golf Finishes in Eighth Place at NCAA Division III Championships

NICHOLASVILLE, Ky. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's golf team earned another top 10 finish by coming in eighth place at the NCAA Division III Championships after the final round on Friday at the Keene Trace Golf Club.

The top 10 was the sixth in a row for CMS, which includes three years before the pandemic (2017-19) and the three years after (2022-24). The stretch includes a national title in 2018, a third-place finish last year, a fourth-place finish in 2019, two eighth-place finishes (2017, 2024) and one ninth-place finish (2022). 

The Athenas earned the top-10 this year with a young lineup that featured one junior (Stella Cheng), two sophomores (Esther Lee, Ella Chiu) and two first-years (Christine Yu, Jessie Kong). 

Cheng earned the highest overall finish for CMS by coming in a tie for 20th at +14 for the championship. Kong had the best score for the Athenas in the final round on Friday, finishing with a 73 to move up 14 places into a tie for 33rd. 

Carnegie Mellon ended up winning the national title by 14 strokes over Emory (+35 to +49), while Pomona-Pitzer was third at +51 and George Fox was fourth at +53. CMS was at +66, two shots behind Redlands and Illinois Wesleyan in a tie for sixth. 

Kong had three of the six birdies that the Athenas carded on Friday, picking them up on No. 2, No. 9 and No. 11. CMS started strong with Cheng and Lee earning birdies on No. 1, but the Keene Trace course played consistently tough all week with George Fox's 287 on Friday (-1), the only round any team played in the red all week. 

CMS will be in strong shape to make another run at a top 10 finish and contend for a national title next season with its five NCAA golfers returning.