SAMMAMISH -- After tenth-place finishes at its first two tournaments of the year, the BYU women’s golf team improved to an 8th-place finish at the Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational hosted by the University of Washington.
Lone senior and team captain Natalia Jimenez led the Cougars by finishing tied at No. 13 and ending the tournament at +13 229. The Bogota, Colombia, native shot a 7-over-par 79 in the third round by making birdies on holes five and eight, but bogeyed a few holes and double-bogeyed holes nine and 17.
Jade Bollinger, a sophomore from Wellington, Florida, had the best round of the day as she finished at 3-over-par 75, improving her score by five strokes in each round to end the tournament at +24 240. She tied for the No. 37 spot as she made birdies on holes six and 11, but had five bogeys in the final round.
Freshman Maggie Yuan of Chengdu, Sichuan, China also was impressive throughout the tournament as she finished tied at No.18, shooting a +17 233. She improved her second-round score by six strokes from the first round, but actually slipped a few spots individually as she completed the third round at nine-over-par 81.
Sophomore Sara Romero of Bogota, Colombia, and junior Shayla Forsey from Morristown, Tenn., had impressive tournament finishes tied at No. 46 and No. 56, respectively.
The team will not compete for another few weeks until Oct. 27-28, where they will participate in the Las Vegas Collegiate Showdown.
Full statistics of this tournament can be viewed at golfstat.com.
Edean Ihlanfeldt Invitational
The field
1 Stanford +41
2 Oregon +57
3 Washington +58
T4 San Francisco +63
T4 Cal +63
6 Long Beach State +73
7 Oregon St. +76
8 Brigham Young +79
9 Washington St. +80
10 New Mexico St. +89
11 Idaho +99
12 New Mexico +103
13 Eastern Washington +106
BYU 8/13 +79 (318-313-312--943)
T13 N. Jimenez 72-78-79--229 +13
T18 M. Yuan 79-73-81--233 +17
T37 J. Bollinger 85-80-75--240 +24
T46 S. Romero 82-84-79--245 +29
T56 S. Forsey 87-82-79--248 +32