ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- The NM State women's golf program finished action at the Dick McGuire Invitational hosted by the University of New Mexico at the UNM Championship Golf Course Tuesday.
Playing in a loaded field that included eight teams ranked inside the Golfstat top-60, and seven NCAA Tournament participants from a season ago, The Aggies shot +10 on Tuesday to finish +34 for the championship. The score was good for 15th place overall.
After struggling for the first two rounds of the 54-hole tournament, sophomore Arantza Armas Stenner fired a team-best 73 Tuesday, finishing without a bogey on the back nine.
For the tournament, the Aggies were led by Valentina Origel and Alison Gastelum who finished tied for 38th (+7) and tied for 43rd (+8) respectively.
BYU fired a combined team score of -8 on Tuesday to secure a final score of -6 (858), six shots better than San Jose State who fired an even-par score of 864. Host UNM fired a team score of +3 to finish third, followed by San Diego State (+8) and Pepperdine (+10).
Kaleiya Romero of Pepperdine defeated BYU's Lula Galeai on the first playoff hole to win the individual title. Both Romero and Galeai tied for the 54-hole lead at -10.
Colorado (+11), Kansas (+14), Oregon State (+15), Texas State (+16) and Cal (+21) rounded out the top-10 finishers. Denver finished 11th at +23, while UNLV (+24), Fresno State (+25), Iowa (+33) and NM State (+34) finished 12-15 respectively. Colorado State closed its 54-hole total at +44 to finish 16th overall.
HEAD COACH DANNY BOWEN:
"We didn't hit our irons well enough to be in good positions on the greens this week, which really hurt our overall team score. I am proud of Arantza [Armas] who really rebounded nicely after a tough day yesterday. She played with a lot more confidence which was encouraging. It was also really good that Valentina [Origel] finished with the top score on our team and played as well as she did. She's worked hard in the offseason and looked really well prepared. To shoot 74 and to hit only four fairways shows a great amount of mental strength. Overall, as a team, we need to improve and work on a lot of things before we head to Colorado for another strong field at the Golfweek Challenge."
UP NEXT:
The Aggies look to bounce back next week at the aforementioned Golfweek Conference Challenge hosted by Red Sky Golf Club and the City of Vail. The three-day event begins on Monday, Sept. 27. The tournament features one team for some of the top conferences including the American (USF), Atlantic Sun (Central Arkansas, Kennesaw State), Big West (Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State), SOCON (ETSU), PAC-12 (Washington State), Summit League (Denver) and WAC (NM State).
