Seattle Pacific University’s women’s golf team competed against Saint Martin’s University on Saturday, Oct. 12. SPU came away with a team score of 316 points, breaking their previous low of 326 against George Fox University on Sept. 14. Saint Martin’s won the match with 301 points.
Freshman golfer Natalie Eklund shot the team-best 78 (38 on the front nine, 40 on the back nine), tying for fourth in the match’s individual standings with Saint Martin’s Jade Rebelo and Abby Roll.
Eklund felt thankful for contributing to the team’s new record.
“When I came in and saw I had the best score, I was super proud of myself and how I was able to put all of the pieces of my game together to help the team set a new record,” Eklund said. “Our performance as a team on Saturday was awesome. I was most proud that three of us shot in the 70s and were able to show what we’ve got.”
The best performances after Eklund came from sophomore Sophie Stamatis and junior Sara Rhodes. Stamatis shot 43 on the front nine and 36 on the back nine. Rhodes was more consistent, shooting 39 on the front nine and 40 on the back nine. Both golfers shot 79 and tied for seventh place in Saturday’s individual standings.
Leading SPU in the overall Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s Division II golf individual rankings is sophomore Zoe Garcia in 15th place with 556 strokes.
Head Coach Tyler Copp said he is happy with the team’s progression.
“It was awesome to see,” Copp said. “In terms of where we’ve gone from our first tournament to now, it has been a huge success.”
SPU is ranked sixth overall in the GNAC team rankings with 2300 strokes across seven matches. They have one more tournament remaining in their fall season at the Flagler Fall Slam in St. Augustine, Florida, from Monday, Oct. 21, to Tuesday, Oct. 22.
Copp hopes the team will continue to progress as they complete their fall season.
“We had a great day on Saturday, so we’re hoping to replicate that and put together two good rounds in Florida,” Copp said. “It’ll be an opportunity to put together a good final tournament round of the season.”
SPU men’s and women’s cross country competed in the Emerald City Open on Saturday, Oct. 12. The men’s team finished sixth with 176 points. Sophomore Silas Demmert was the only SPU runner to make the top 20. Demmert finished with a time of 26:55.6, placing 18th. The women’s team finished sixth with 125 points. Sophomore Anna Prussian finished in tenth place with a 23:33.0 time.
SPU’s women’s team also competed in the Lewis Crossover earlier in the morning on Saturday, Oct. 12. The team finished sixteenth with 486 points. Senior Annika Esvelt finished thirteenth with a time of 21:27.75.
“Lewis was a super competitive meet. 12 nationally ranked teams were there, so we got to see [not only] a lot of the teams in our region, but [also] how we stack up against the rest of the country,” Hansen said.
These were SPU’s last races before the GNAC championships on Saturday, Oct. 26, in Bellingham, Washington, on the Sudden Valley Golf Course. The men’s 8k race starts at 10 a.m., and the women’s 6k race starts at 11 a.m.
