Golden Hurricane finishes 2nd at AAC Championships with 2 top-5 medalists

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — Southern Methodist University took the lead on the final six holes and held on for a twostroke victory over second-place Tulsa on Wednesday at the American Athletic Conference Championship.

Tulsa junior Lovisa Gunnar and sophomore Grace Kilcrease placed second and third in the individual standings.

The Golden Hurricane carded a final round 281 to finish with a 19-under score of 845, while the 28th-ranked Mustangs turned in a 12-under par total in the final round to finish at 21-under par 843 to take home the team title and the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

Tulsa counted three under-par scores and one evenpar tally on the final day of the championship at the par-72 Southern Hills Golf Club.

Gunnar shot 1-over par 73 on Wednesday for an 8-under par 208 total to place a stroke behind medalist Daniela Abonce of Texas-San Antonio.

Kilcrease turned in Tulsa’s best round of the day with a 4-under par 68 and climbed from 10th to third place with a final 6-under par 210 total. She turned in six birdies and had two bogeys for the day. Kilcrease opened the day with a birdie on the par-4 first hole and was 3-under after the first nine. She bogeyed the 10th and birdied par-5 holes 12 and 16 to end the day with the second-best round of the day for any of the 60 participants.

Redshirt freshman Allyn Stephens had Tulsa’s second-best day with a 2-under 70 score. After making the turn at 1-under par, it was a roller-coaster back nine for Stephens with birdie-bogey-birdie-bogey-birdie on the first five of her final nine holes. She finished with a bogey on No. 16 and birdie on the par-3 17th hole.

Stephens finished in a 10th-place tie with a 2-under 214 total for the 54 holes.

Junior Sydney Seigel placed 16th and sophomore Jenni Roller was 21st overall for the Hurricane. Roller had Tulsa’s third under-par round of the day with a 1-under 71, while Seigel shot even-par for her final 18 holes.

South Florida, who began the day in first place by six strokes, finished in third place with a 14-under par score of 850, followed by East Carolina (866) and UTSA (871) to round out the top-five teams.

By finishing among the top-7 overall, Gunnar and Kilcrease earned all-conference honors.

The Tulsa women will wait for the announcement of NCAA Regional qualifiers next Wednesday. Regionals then take place May 6-8, followed by the championship finals from May 17-22 in Carlsbad, Calif.

In regional play, six 54-hole regional competitions will be played to determine the participants in the championship finals. In each regional, 12 teams and six individuals not on those teams will compete.