WILLIAMBURG, Va. – The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps women's golf team played a solid final round, shooting +7 as a team, to take third place at the NCAA Division III Championships on Friday afternoon at the Kingsmill Resort, tying the program's second-highest finish ever.
The Athenas ended the 72 holes with a team score of 1195 (316-295-290-295), to finish third at +43, while receiving one of the NCAA trophies given to the top four finishers for the fourth time in program history. The previous top-four finishes included a national title in 2018, a fourth-place finish in 2019, and third place in 2023.
Christine Yu finished in a tie for ninth on the individual leaderboard at +6, closing with a 73-72-73 over her final three rounds.
Esther Lee was tied for 18th at +10, after closing with a 73-71-73 over her final 54 holes, while
Stella Cheng earned a top-30 finish (tied for 26th) in her fourth trip to nationals at +13.
Emory won the national championship with a final score of +16, with Carnegie Mellon second at +29. George Fox finished fourth, eight strokes behind the Athenas at +51.
After the first round, which was played in difficult, rainy conditions, CMS was in 16th place, one spot below the cutline, with a +28. The Athenas regrouped and were then one of the three best teams in the field by a substantial margin over the final 54 holes, climbing up to 11th after the second round, then into fourth after the third round, and finally into third.
Over the final three rounds, CMS shot +15 a team, tied with Carnegie Mellon as the second-best in the field over that span behind Emory (+5). The fourth-best team over the final 54 holes was Redlands at +25, which was able to move up from 19th place after the first round into a tie for sixth. Pomona-Pitzer (ninth) also earned a top-10 finish from the SCIAC.
Jessie Kong also had a strong final round with a 73, including key back-to-back birdies on No. 14 and No. 15 to help CMS solidify its hold on third place, while
Ella Chiu joined Lee and Cheng in contributing to a second third-place finish in her career.
Lee helped CMS make an early move up from fourth to third, when she shook off a double on No. 2 to get birdies on No. 3, No. 6 and No. 7 to take the turn at -1. Yu also opened up with a birdie on the first hole and added another on No. 3, while Cheng picked up a birdie on No. 3.
The Athenas had some pressure behind them to hold on for third, as WashU, Middlebury and George Fox were within striking distance when CMS hit the homestretch, but Kong's two birdies on No. 14 and No. 15, and Yu and Cheng's birdies on No. 17, helped create separation. CMS' four scorers actually all had bogeys on the 18th, which raised the team score from +3 to +7, but which were inconsequential in the final standings, as the Athenas merely needed to be conservative and keep their third place trophy.
CMS will look to make it back to again to nationals next year, when it will host the 2026 NCAA Championships at Desert Willow Golf Resort in Palm Desert. The Athenas will return four of the five who competed at this year's NCAA Championships, losing only Cheng, after a career which saw her earn All-America honors four times (second-team twice and honorable mention twice).
