Mizuno/WGCA Division III National Rankings
REDLANDS, Calif. – The Women's Golf Coach Coaches Association (WGCA) and Mizuno recently announced their new Division III National Polls for Women's Golf and the University of Redlands comes in ranked No. 1 along with Emory University.
This ranking is the highest ever in program history for the Bulldogs as they put together a record breaking fall season, where they won the CA State Intercollegiate (Olivas Links Golf Club) and the Division III Preview Tournament (Mission Hills Resort) along with a third place finish at the CMS Challenge (San Dimas Golf Club).
They are the highest ranked school within the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) joining No. 11 Pomona-Pitzer, No. 12 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and Cal Lutheran, who is receiving votes.
Redlands opened their fall schedule with a win at the California State Intercollegiate shooting 275 to open the two-day event, which is the lowest team single round score in program history. There second round they shot 289, which is the fifth lowest single-round score in program history. With two of the five lowest single round scores, their two-round 564 total is now the lowest two-round total in program history, breaking the program record by 19 strokes, which was set by Jugar, M. Kiger, G. Kiger, and Hay from 2021 during this same tournament.
Individually Kendall Nicholson (Bellevue, Wash.) tied Caroline Ordian for the lowest single-round score with a 64. Nicholson shot a two-round score of 137, which is the second lowest two-round score in program history, one off Ordian's 136 (2015). Hannah Jugar (Chula Vista, Calif.) shot a 68, which is the fifth lowest score in program history and her 139, two-round score is tied for the fourth lowest in program history.
The Bulldogs cemented themselves as one of the best teams in the country with their win at the Division III Preview where they beat out now (listed in order of finish not ranking) No. 8 University of Texas at Dallas, No. 6 Washington and Lee University, No. 7 Washington University in St. Louis, No. 4 Carnegie Mellon University, No. 4 Methodist University, No. 22 Grinnell College, and No. 24 Hamilton College.
They shot a 605 (306-299), which propelled them from third to first between the two rounds. Nicholson also finished second on the leaderboard posting a 147, with rounds of 77-70, which bumped her up twenty-two spots and Jugar finished inside the top ten with a tie for eighth (74-76).
Upon their return to California the Bulldogs then traveled to the CMS Challenge, hosted by Claremont-M-S at Upland Golf Club. They shot a blistering 298 to open things up and then followed that up with a 301 (599). After the two rounds they would finish in third behind Claremont-M-S and Menlo College. Nicholson again led the Maroon and Grey placing third overall with a 71-73. Andrea York (Oakdale, Calif.) and Iris Liu (Diamond Bar, Calif.) finished just outside the Top 10, both placing eleventh with a 76-76.
Redlands returns to the links for their spring season on February 11-12 when they compete in SCIAC No. 1, hosted by the University of La Verne at El Dorado Golf Club (Long Beach, CA).