Dixie State’s women’s golf team rallied from a stroke back at the beginning of the day to claim its first victory of the season at the Fourth-Annual DSU Fall Invitational on Tuesday at Sand Hollow Golf Course in Hurricane, Utah. The tournament win is also the second team title in the program’s five-plus year history, with the first coming in the 2014-15 season at the Colorado Mesa-hosted RMAC No. 2 tournament.
After shooting an opening round 304 (+16), the Trailblazers posted an 18-over 306 to finish with a two-day total of plus-34 610, one shot clear of runner-up Cal State Monterey Bay (306-305-611, +35) and four strokes ahead of first-round leader Sonoma State (303-311-614, +38), which finished third.
Colorado Mesa (310-309-619, +463) placed fourth overall, followed by Colorado-Colorado Springs (315-314-629, +53) in fifth, Western Washington (322-318-640, +64) in sixth, Chico State (318-326-644, +68) in seventh, Point Loma (324-321-645, +69) in eighth, Westminster College in ninth (325-326-651, +75) and Hawai’i Hilo (359-353-712, +136) in 10th.
Junior Katie Ford led DSU on day two as she fired a second round 1-over 73 with three birdies to take tournament runner-up honors at plus-3 147. Of the three birdies on her card Tuesday, none was bigger than her last one as she rolled in a clutch 30-foot putt on the par-4 ninth — her final hole of the day — which clinched the title for the Trailblazers.
In all, four Trailblazers finished in the top 20 on the leaderboard, including freshman Kaitlynn Deeble (73-76) who penciled in two birdies in a 4-over 76 round Tuesday en route to her first collegiate top-five showing with a tied for fourth place total of plus-5 149. Senior Cobair Collinsworth (80-77) also rolled in a pair of birdies as she bounced back with a 5-over 77 to finish tied for 15th at plus-13 157, and freshman Cailyn Cardall (77-81) posted a 9-over 81 with two birdies to place tied for 20th at plus-14 158.
Sophomore Mei Brennan (83-80), playing as an individual, finished solo in 30th place at plus-19 163, while sophomore Ashley Fernandez (84-80) birdied a pair of holes in her second round on her way to a tied for 31st place showing at plus-20 164. Junior Amalia Negrette (78-87) finished tied for 35th at plus-21 165.
Sonoma State’s Sabrina Virtusio (70-74) won medalist honors with a two-day even par score of 144, while Colorado Mesa’s Ashlyn Kirschner (71-77-148, +4) finished alone in third place overall.
Dixie State continues its fall schedule at the Sonoma State Invitational on Oct. 16-17, in Rohnert Park, California.
Steve Johnson is the Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations and Collegiate Licensing at Dixie State University. For more DSU Athletics news, please visit www.dixieathletics.com and follow Dixie State on Twitter at @DixieAthletics.