REDLANDS, Calif. – The Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) announced their 2023 NCAA Division III awards and University of Redlands Head Coach Jamie Zantua was named the WGCA West Region Coach of the Year in his first season at the helm of the women's team.
Zantua led the Bulldogs to a second-place finish in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) standings and earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Division III National Championships where they tied for sixth. As a team the Bulldogs had an individual average round score of 75.02, the lowest in program history and 0.31 strokes better than the previous record. On the year the Maroon and Grey won six events, which included the CA State Intercollegiate, SCIAC No. 1, SCIAC No. 2, DIII Preview, Jekyll Island Invitational and the UC Santa Cruz Invitational. They also had four players recognized on the All-SCIAC 1st Team and another three selected WGCA All-Americans and WGCA All-West Region.
Zantua became the first full-time head men's or women's golf coach in school history when he took the full-time role leading both programs in January. Fall 2023 will be his first full season as the head coach of both programs.
2022-23 Team Review
The Bulldogs started their fall half of the season with two wins, one at the California State Intercollegiate and then a week later at the Division III Preview on the same course as the NCAA Division III National Championships.
At the intercollegiate Kendall Nicholson (Bellevue, WA), Hannah Jugar (Chula Vista, CA), Iris Liu (Diamond Bar, CA), Jizelle Robledo (La Habra, CA), and Andrea York (Oakdale, CA) combined to shoot the lowest single round score in program history, a first round 275, 12 strokes better than the second lowest round.
In the second round at the intercollegiate they shot a 289, good for sixth lowest, which gave them a two-round 564, the lowest two-round score in program history, 19 strokes better than second place at the time.
At the preview they won by eight strokes and beat out a field that includes the NCAA National Championships No. 3 Washington University in St. Louis, No. 5 Carnegie Melon, No. 8 Washington & Lee University, No. 10 University of Texas at Dallas, and No. 21 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
They ended the fall with a third-place finish at the Claremont Challenge as they completed six rounds of golf in 13 days.
To start the spring half of the schedule they won SCIAC No. 1 by 11 strokes over California Lutheran University (CLU).
After a month off, they went to Arizona and took third at the George Fox Invitational, finishing five strokes behind the tournament winner CMS. Their second round 291 was the sixth lowest single round score at that point. They finished their two rounds with a 589, the sixth best two-round tournament score.
On short rest they headed to the east coast for the Jekyll Island Invitational in Georgia. The Bulldogs were fourth after a first round 300. They then improved by a stroke and moved into third place heading into the final day. In that final round they passed then No. 10 P-P and No. 27 Sewanee as they finished with a three-round 901, at that time the second lowest total behind their 2022 895 on the same course.
At SCIAC No. 2 they picked up their second conference win in as many chances. In their first round UR shot a 291, the seventh lowest single-round score at the time. They finished the tournament with a 587, the fourth lowest two-round score at the time.
In their final non-conference tournament of the regular season, the Bulldogs traveled north for the UC Santa Cruz Invitational, which they won on the strength of a 295 first round. The Bulldogs were one of five teams ranked inside Golfstat's Top-8 at the tournament.
To end the regular season the Bulldogs took third at the SCIAC Championships, despite shooting a second round 287, the second best single round score. They also posted the second and fifth lowest two-round scores with the second and third rounds totaling 581, the second lowest, and the first and second rounds totaling 586, the fifth lowest. The Bulldogs finished the championships with an 880 for their three rounds, a new program record and 15 strokes better than their previous record of 895.