Tuesday, April 23, 2024
by Thomas Lal, GNAC Media Relations Assistant

COEUR d’ALENE, Idaho  –  It was a red-letter day in Coeur d’Alene for the second year in a row as Simon Fraser swept the 2024 Great Northwest Athletic Conference Women’s Golf Championships once again.

The Red Leafs ran away with the team title, winning by 14 strokes over second-place Western Washington. Simon Fraser finished the tournament with a two-round score of 596 after carding a score of 298 on the team’s second trip through the course. The two-round score is a GNAC Championships record and eclipses the previous record of 609 set by SFU just last year. The Red Leafs accomplished the feat by placing all five of their golfers in the top 10 and not lower than sixth.

“It’s such an incredible moment for the team, and this is the tournament that we look forward to all year,” said SFU head coach Matthew Steinbach. “We are in a really tough west region, and winning the GNAC to get the AQ spot is really important. We had our sights set on that this week, and I am so proud of them for pulling through.”

Freshman Dana Smith led the charge for the Simon Fraser, carding a recording-setting two-round score of 2-under-par 142, smashing the previous tournament record of 145 set by Lacy Sheldon of WWU in 2019 and Ashley Bruland of SMU in 2023. Smith’s record-setting score was built on a second day where she shot a 2-under-par 70 to overcome a three-stroke deficit coming into the day. Smith’s line on Tuesday included three birdies, an eagle and a stellar par-finish on the final hole of the day after having to navigate through the rough and around trees.

“It feels amazing, and it is more than I could have ever imagined,” said Smith, a freshman, after her first collegiate win. “It was amazing and we all had so much fun jumping into the lake. We worked really hard for this, and it really paid off.”

Holding a two-stroke lead entering the final hole of the tournament, an errant tee shot put Smith directly behind a tree on the par-5, 541-yard ninth hole. The freshman kept a calm head, punching out into the fairway with WWU’s Emma Worgum breathing down her neck sitting two strokes back and in the middle of the fairway off the tee. From there, Smith crushed a fairway wood, stuck her approach shot inside of 15 feet and saved par with what proved to be a tournament-winning putt. “I was focusing on my breathing as I was walking to my shot,” Smith said on her mindset on the final hole of her tournament. “I tried not to think too much about what was going on around me.”

Smith was followed by Worgum, as the sophomore came into the day leading the field following her record-tying performance on Monday. Worgum finished the tournament with a score of even-par 144 and was level with Smith heading into the penultimate hole. She finished the day with four birdies to bring her total to a tournament-leading 10.

Behind Smith, a strong contingent of Red Leafs rounded out the scoring effort. Sueah Park followed Smith and Worgum in third, carding a two-round score of 6-over-par 150 with her lowest round of the tournament a 1-over-par 73 on Monday. The result marks Park’s second straight top-10 finish at the GNAC Championships after finishing in a tie for eighth a year ago. Meera Minhas was right behind Park in fourth with a score of 8-over-par 152 after playing her best round on the final day of the tournament with a 3-over-par 75.

It was a tightly contest affair behind the top five as three players finished in a tie for sixth with scores of 10-over-par 154. Among the trio was a pair of Red Leafs in Kassie Muanyam and Anaya Bhandal along with Western Washington’s Kasey Maralack. Muanyam recorded the most birdes among the three players in the second round with three while Maralack notched an eagle on the par-5 hole 18 to finish off the back nine strong before making the turn.

“It’s such an incredible moment for the team, and this is the tournament that we look forward to all year,” said SFU head coach Matthew Steinbach. “We are in a really tough west region, and winning the GNAC to get the AQ spot is really important. We had our sights set on that this week, and I am so proud of them for pulling through.”

Western Washington’s Lauren Lee also made her third top-10 appearance of the season for the Vikings as she finished nine with a two-day score of 155. Behind Lee, WWU’s Dani Bailey and Saint Martin’s Kelsie Inouye tied for 10th. Along with Inouye, Northwest Nazarene’s Madison Gridley was one of just two golfers from a team other than WWU of SFU to crack the top 10 as she took fifth place with a two-round score of 153.

Behind the Red Leafs and Vikings, Gridley’s fifth-place led the Nighthawks to a third-place team finish with a score of 638. Saint Martin’s finished the tournament fourth with a score of 649 while Montana State Billings finished fifth with a score of 680.

With the GNAC Championships title in hand, Simon Fraser receives the conference’s automatic berth to the NCAA Championships West Regional in Stockton, Calif., on May 6-8. “It is such a treat to play here, and we are so fortunate that the Coeur d’Alene Resort welcomes us every year,” said Steinbach. “Without a doubt this was the best I have ever seen both with the weather and with the course conditions. The greens were so pure and were rolling smooth. The course rewarded good golf, and we clearly have a lot of good golf in the GNAC.”