SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's golf team went into Sunday's second round in a tie for first, and pulled away to win by 12 strokes at the UC Santa Cruz Invitational this weekend.
The Athenas finished with a two-day score of 603, with a 298 on Sunday's second round. UC Santa Cruz ended up in second place 12 shots back, with Redlands third, George Fox fourth, Cal Lutheran fifth and Pomona-Pitzer sixth.
Ella Chiu finished second on the individual leaderboard for CMS with a two-day score of +3, just one shot away from individual medalist honors.
Alisa Ching added a top-five finish (fifth) at +5, including a -1 on Sunday's second round to help the Athenas pull away.
Emmie Ding, who also played as an independent, had a 73 on Saturday and held the individual lead at one point on the back nine on Sunday, before setting for a sixth-place finish (out of 75 golfers).
Leah Gaidos, playing as an independent, had three straight birdies on 7-9 on Sunday to help her finish with a 73 before finishing tied for 16th. Ester Lee also earned a 16th place finish (out of 75 golfers),
Precilla Tea earned a 19-place finish, while
Christine Yu was 21st.
Chiu had a stretch of three birdies in a row on the 7-9 holes on Saturday, to take the turn at -1 before finishing with a 73. She also had consecutive birdies on Sunday on the fourth and fifth (her second and third holes of the day. Ching started out her Sunday with a birdie on No. 4, and then added birdies on No. 9 and No. 11, before closing out with six straight pars to finish in the red.
CMS will be back in action next weekend for the second SCIAC regular season tournament, which will be hosted by Redlands at Tukwet Canyon in Beaumont.
