Leina off to NCAA regionals

Leina Kim tees off during one of the tournaments in the RMAC this year. (CSU-PUEBLO PHOTO)

Leina Kim’s grit will be tested anew, as she competes in the NCAA Division II Women’s Golf West Super Regional Tournament next week.
The former CNMI junior golfer qualified for the elite tournament after bagging the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Golfer of the Year award for the second straight season and leading her Colorado State University-Pueblo to the RMAC championship late last month.

It will be the second time Kim made it to the NCAA regionals after debuting in the competition last season during her rookie season with the ThunderWolves. She is the lone RMAC player participating in the tournament that will be held at the Walnut Creek Country Club in Mansfield, Texas, from May 5 to 7. According to CSU-Pueblo’s website, only nine teams and four individuals from the huge region were picked to compete in next week’s event. The Top 3 (individual) at the regionals will then earn slots to the NCAA Division II National Championships, which will take place from May 14 to 17 in Conover, North Carolina.

The 22-year-old Kim was at the nationals last year after finishing third in the regionals. She is hoping to equal, if not surpass her feat in the regionals so she can make it to the nationals for the second straight time. Last year, Kim shot a 20-over-par score in four rounds to finish No. 28 at the nationals.

“This year I’m hoping to finish strong and play the way I should be playing,” Kim said in a message sent to Saipan Tribune early this week after she got her second RMAC Golfer of the Year award.
As for her back-to-back plums, Kim said the second one was sweeter.

“It’s always an honor to win something but winning the RMAC Golfer of the Year award again is a great feeling knowing that I did my best this season. I think winning it this year is a sweeter feeling. I knew what I had to work on and I had more and better competition out on the field,” she said.

With Kim’s recent success and the impending departure of some CSU-Pueblo veteran players she is expected to lead the ThunderWolves in her junior year next season.

“Summing up my sophomore season is bittersweet. We are losing a couple of teammates and I consider them as family. We all played our best and we kicked butt out there and won the championships,” said Kim, who was named 2013 NMASA Female Athlete of the Year for her outstanding rookie season in the collegiate ranks.