Mapanao, Baker Lead WCU Women’s Golf to Runner-Up Finish
Sophomore Brie Mapanao carded a final round, even-par 70 to come home as the individual runner-up, guiding Western Carolina to a second-place finish at the Jupiter Women’s Invitational concluded Tuesday at the par-70, 5,890-yard Match Course at the Jonathan’s Landing Golf Club. The Catamounts finished with a three-round, two-day score of 859, the third-best team 54-hole score in program history.
Mapanao was one of two Catamounts to finish inside the Top 10. She was joined by redshirt junior Kayleigh Baker who climbed 11 positions for a career-best finish among a two-way tie for third coming on the strength of her career-low round recorded for the second time at the event.
After matching her best 18-hole score of 1-under par 69 on Monday, Baker countered three bogeys with a trio of birdies and one of just two eagles registered at the event to shoot 2-under par 68 on Tuesday. A stroke over par through the front nine, the St. Augustine, Fla., product posted consecutive birdies on holes 10 and 11 to move to one-under for the day. She then eagled the par-4, 395-yard 13th to sit at 3-under par before a bogey on No. 15. She carded par on the final three holes to put the final stamp on her best career round and the lowest 54-hole score of her career at 214 – a mark that is tied for the seventh-best individual 54-hole score in WCU history.
Mapanao matched her opening-round score of even-par 70 over Tuesday’s final 18 holes, answering a pair of bogeys with two of her team-leading eight birdies over the two-day event for a career-best 54-hole score of 211. Her tally on Tuesday represented the third-lowest three-round score in the program’s record books.
Mapanao led the field in par-3 scoring, shooting 1-under at 2.93, the only player to break par on the shortest layouts. As a squad, WCU paced the tournament with 175 combined pars.
Also for the Catamounts, junior Elizabeth Lohbauer slipped into a three-way tie for 13th with a total of 218, finishing the event with a final-round 3-over par 73. She carded two of her six birdies on Tuesday.
Rounding out WCU’s scoring five was fifth-year senior Victoria Ladd, down five spots into a four-way tie for 19th at 222, and sophomore Sadler Miller in a tie for 32nd with a score of 227. Ladd shot a career-best 69 on Monday in the first round where she recorded four of her five birdies at the event. In just her second collegiate event, Miller lowered her career-best round by a stroke with a second-round 72 on the way to her best 54-hole score of 227.
Playing unattached as an individual, junior Kaitlyn Wingnean saved her best for last by shooting a season-best, 1-under par 69 on Tuesday to advance seven positions in the final standings. The Edmonton, Alberta, product doubled her birdie production on the final day, charting four of her six in the tournament over Tuesday’s 18 holes.
Led by individual medalist Clemence Cadeac at 9-under par 201, Florida Atlantic pulled away over the final 18 holes to claim the team championship by nine strokes over Western Carolina, 850-to-859. Keiser University gained a spot Tuesday to finish third at 867, with Florida Gulf Coast (868) and Jacksonville (875) rounding out the Top Five. Using a tournament-best 16 birdies, Cadeac claimed the 10-stroke win over Mapano, 201-to-211.
Western Carolina continues its busy October next week, traveling to Edisto Island, S.C., for the Edisto Island Invitational on Oct. 16-17 at the Plantation Course at Edisto, hosted by the College of Charleston.
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2 – Western Carolina – 278-295 -286 = 859 (+19)
2 – Brie Mapanao – 70-71-70 = 211 (+1)
T3 – Kayleigh Baker – 69-77-68 = 214 (+4)
T13 – Elizabeth Lohbauer – 70-75-73 = 218 (+8)
T19 – Victoria Ladd – 69-77-76 = 222 (+12)
T32 – Sadler Miller – 80-72-75 = 227 (+17)
T41 – Kaitlyn Wingnean (ind.) – 87-77-69 = 233 (+23)