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Leina sets RMAC record in title win
Leina Kim submitted a 9-under 135 to set a new Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship single-round record on her way to clinching her first conference title and in the process help Colorado State University-Pueblo to a runner-up finish.
Leina Kim studies the green before making her shot in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championship last Tuesday at the Coldwater Golf Club in Avondale, Arizona.
(CSU-Pueblo)
The Saipan-born Kim, according to the CSU-Pueblo Lady ThunderWolves’ official website, fired a final round of 6-under 66 on Tuesday at the Coldwater Golf Club in Avondale, Arizona.
The former CNMI junior golfer’s 6-under 66 broke her own single-round record of 5-under 67 in the Mustang Women’s Fall Intercollegiate in September last year.
Her 36-hole score in the Western New Mexico University-sponsored event was 11-under 133 or two strokes behind her 9-under 135 total at Coldwater, but is still a RMAC tournament record.
It was Kim’s fifth title win this season after she topped four of the five events from September to October last year. It is also the third time that she finished under par in a tournament.
Kim and WNMU’s Mary Driscoll entered Tuesday’s final round tied on top of the standings, but while the latter struggled the CSU-Pueblo junior proved to be steadier down the stretch.
The Marianas Baptist Academy graduate birdied two of the first three holes and had another at the par-5 No. 6 to finish the front nine at 3-under par. Consecutive birdies at the 10th and 11th moved her to 5-under with seven holes left to play.
She bogeyed No. 14 but recovered with two birdies and two pars for her record-setting performance.
Kim’s performance towed the Lady ThunderWolves to a second place finish with a 36-hole tally of 618 behind the 599 of eventual team champion Metro State University of Denver.
Western New Mexico (620), Colorado Mesa University (625), and Adams State (626) complete the Top 5.
CSU-Pueblo senior and reigning tournament champion Julie Sanchez jumped from fifth to second place to complete a 1-2 finish for the Lady ThunderWolves. She ended up with a 1-over 145 where she had 24 pars and had six birdies against Kim’s 12.
Natasha Navarro (22-over 166) and Danielle DuPont (28-over 172), Kim and Sanchez’s teammates, finished 32nd and 42nd places in the 58-player field.
