Barnett and Towner Compete at First Day of NWC Spring Classic

By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

BREMERTON, Wash. -- Maddi Barnett (Jr., Boise, ID/Timberline HS) of Willamette University held 19th place out of 42 golfers after shooting an 89 in the first round of the Northwest Conference Spring Classic in women's golf at the Gold Mountain Golf Club on Saturday, April 8. The tournament will conclude with the second round on Sunday, April 9.

Shiyang Fan from Whitman College topped the leaderboard with a score of 76. She led by two strokes over a pair of George Fox University golfers who tied for second. Iris Kawada and Sydney Maluenda each shot a 79.

Two golfers also were tied for fourth place and two more were tied for sixth. In the tie for fourth, Claire Burke of Lewis & Clark College and Phoebe Nguyen of Whitman matched each other with 80s. Tied for sixth at 81 were Jeankie-Jhen Aczon of Pacific Lutheran University and Rachel Drgastin from GFU. Jaymie Pentony of Whitworth University was eighth at 82, one stoke in front of a five-way tie for ninth.

Barnett was joined by teammate Lexi Towner (Fr., Chico, CA/Chico HS) in competing for the Bearcats. Towner shot a 98 in the first round.

In the team standings, George Fox owned first place after 18 holes with a score of 322. Whitman was one stroke off the pace in second at 323. Whitworth held third place at 336, with Lewis & Clark in fourth at 342, and Pacific Lutheran University in fifth at 350. Pacific University was sixth at 385, University of Puget Sound was seventh at 391 and Linfield College was eighth at 396. Willamette did not field a complete team.