Photo by: Tony Leon/ActionWestPhotography.com
VENTURA, Calif. – Sophomore Taylor Beckwith (Turlock, Calif.) made history this past weekend during the CA State Intercollegiate to lead the Whittier College Women's Golf program to a 4th place finish totaling a two round total of 624.
11 teams and 58 individuals took part in the event, which took place at Olivas Links Golf Course.
The two-day tournament consisted of 36 holes and the par was 72. The event was hosted by Cal Lutheran for the first time in its history. After shooting a combined 314 on day one, WC was able to lower its score four strokes to a 310 to wrap up the invitational.
Playing without junior Kajal Vitha (Whittier, Calif.) who was out with an injury, the Purple & Gold still proved tough over the two days. Beckwith led the unit finishing 2nd overall in the field posting a 79 (+7) before bouncing back to shoot a Whittier College program low of 66 (-6) (+1).
Freshman Kamryn Marie Garcia (La Mirada, Calif.) had a huge debut putting together two sub-80 rounds of 78-79 (+13) finishing 18th. Madison Crimi-Demichele (San Jose, Calif.) put together two of her best rounds as a Poet posting a career low 77 before finishing with an 83 for 23rd (+16).
Senior captain Ciara Clark (Henderson, NV) came out strong filling in for Vitha for the weekend and finished 31st after an 80-83 (+19), while junior transfer Alexis Tunstad (Whittier, Calif.) came back from an 87 to post an 82 finishing 42nd (+25).
George Fox's Kristin Elich took home the individual title as shot even (70-74-144). Beckwith was the runner-up at one-over-par (79-66-145). Her 66 on Tuesday was the best from either round. George Fox's Iris Kawada came in third at two-over-par (73-73-146). Chapman's Emily Lewis (72-75-147), Occidental's Anna Lundquist (72-75-147) and George Fox's Rachel Drgastin (75-72-147) tied for fourth at three-over-par.
Elich and Kawada led George Fox to the team title at nine-over-par (292-293-585). Chapman was second at 34-over-par (306-304-610). California Lutheran rounded out the top-three. Whitter College was fourth (314-310-624), Pomona-Pitzer was fifth (317-315-632), Arizona Christian was sixth (317-323-640), Marymount (317-328-645) and Occidental (319-326-645) tied for seventh, Ottawa University - Arizona (331-327-658) was ninth, UC Santa Cruz (350-332-682) was 10th and La Verne (381-407-788) was 11th.
Whittier returns to the links this weekend, September 23-24 as they take part in the CMS Invite at Los Serranos Golf Club.