George Fox Women's Golf Takes 4th At NCAA Championships

WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia - The George Fox Women’s Golf team finished fourth at the DIII NCAA Championships at Kingsmill Resort in Virginia.

The performance comes after the Bruins program took 4th place last year at the NCAA Championships and won the National Championship in 2023.

The Bruins were led by Alison Takamiya, who was trying to repeat as the individual national champion, but after being tied for the lead after her third round 69, 3-under on Thursday, shot a final round 74 (+2) on Friday.

“All and all, just thrilled to make the podium this year with all our great seniors as that makes it 5 straight years for us bringing home a NCAA trophy,” George Fox Women’s Golf Head Coach MaryJo McCloskey said. “That is hard to do with such outstanding competition now in Division III Women’s Golf. So many players could play Division I but are choosing D-III for academics and a smaller school environment. Plus, the tournament field size has grown from 26/27 to 34 teams this year! It’s really incredible how much D-III has taken off in the last 10 years!”

Emory won the DIII NCAA Championship with a team score of 16-over. The Bruins were 51-over while Carnegie Mellon took second place with 29-over and Clarem-Mudd-Scripps finished third place with 43-over.

Liana Brown took 24th for the Bruins after a final round 73, 1-over.

Makensie Toole took 62nd after a 75, 3-over final round. Toole was the individual NCAA D-III Women’s National Champion in 2021.

Ainsley Carter and Katelyn Lam rounded out the scoring for the Bruins, with Carter shooting an 81 (+9) and Lam shooting an 83 (+11). Carter dropped back to 128th place, and Lam finished in 166th.

“We also had 4 additional players (Leanne Telle, Reyna Naranjo, Sofia Ayesa and Samara D’Silva) who helped push this team all season long, and it’s always hard to bring only 5 for the competition. They are a big part of our journey’s success,” McCloskey said. “Next year will be different with losing 5 players, but we will be back and we will be chasing a podium finish once again.

This is their fifth consecutive top-5 finish at the NCAA Tournament, and second year in a row finishing in solo fourth. The Bruins will graduate five seniors but return Katelyn Lam (freshman), another freshman, and two sophomores from this season.

The Bruins dominated the regular season and Northwest Conference Championship, taking first in the NWC Championship, NWC Spring Classic, Westbrook Invitational, Confluence Classic, and NWC Fall Classic.