Women's Golf | 4/17/2024 10:14:00 AM

Utah Tech wraps up its fourth NCAA Division-I season at the 2024 Western Athletic Conference Women's Golf Championships. The three-day, 54-hole event will be played this Friday-through-Sunday at the par-71, 6,235-yard Rim Golf Club in Payson, Ariz.
 
The five-player lineup for the Trailblazers will feature senior Grace Williams, sophomores Brooke Gelinas and Jane Olson, and freshmen Samantha Phelan and Mia Cesarek.
 
HEAD COACH LINDSEY STUCKI: Lindsey Stucki (Utah Tech, 2007) is in her eighth season as head coach of the Trailblazer women's golf program. Last season, Stucki led the Trailblazers to six top-10 team finishes, highlighted by a third-place showing at their own UT Invitational along with a seventh-place showing in their WAC Championships team debut.  
        During her tenure as Utah Tech head coach, Stucki has guided the Blazers to a runner-up Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference team finish in 2019, and to consecutive fifth-place finishes at the Pacific West Conference Championships in 2017 and 2018. 
        Prior to her arrival at Utah Tech, she served as assistant golf professional at the Sand Hollow Golf Resort, and as an LPGA assistant teaching professional for the City of St. George. Stucki also spent two seasons on the coaching staff of the Hurricane High School girl's golf program, including a one-year stint as the Tigers' head coach in the 2010-11 season. 
        Stucki, who is an apprentice member of the LPGA T&CP, played collegiately at the University of Central Arkansas, where she helped lead the Bears to six-consecutive team tournament wins and a Gulf South Conference championship.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Utah Tech shattered six school scoring records on its way to a t-sixth place finish at the regular season-ending Montana State Bobcat Desert Classic, which was played last week at The Golf Course of Estrella in Goodyear, Ariz.
        The t-sixth place showing was Utah Tech's seventh team top-10 finish in nine team events this season.
        The Trailblazers got off to a torrid start with their first under-par team round in the program's brief history, a 4-under par 284, which placed them third on the team leaderboard. The 284 team score eclipsed the previous 18-hole scoring record of even par 288, which was carded in the final round of the 2023-24 season-opening Utah Valley Collegiate Invitational last September (9/12/23).
        Utah Tech then chased that with a 6-over 294, and even though it dropped the Blazers into a three-way tie for seventh on the leaderboard, the team's two-round total of plus-2 578 broke the program's previous 36-hole record of 587 posted at the UVU event.
        The Trailblazers closed with a final round 7-over 295 for a team total of plus-9 873, which bettered the school's previous 54-hole scoring mark of 875 recorded at the same UVU Invite.
        Cesarek helped lead the charge, which she started by smashing the school 18-hole scoring record with an opening 6-under 66. Cesarek's 66 was also her second collegiate under par round overall, and was the lowest score shot by a Trailblazer during the program's current NCAA Division-I transition.
        Cesarek broke the school record previously held by former Blazer standout Katie Ford, who fired a 4-under 68 nearly five years ago to the day in the second round of the 2019 Western New Mexico Mustang Invitational (4/6/2019). 
        Cesarek followed with a second round 1-over 73, and her two-round score of minus-5 139 broke Ford's 36-hole record of minus-2 142 she carded in the first two rounds of the CSU-Pueblo Spring Inv'l (3/25-26/18) during the 2017-18 season. The freshman then closed with a 3-over 75 to finish in a five-way tie for 5^th at minus-2 214.
        Meanwhile, Williams made a little history of her own as she broke the Utah Tech 54-hole scoring record in placing fourth overall at minus-3 213. Williams began her tourney with a solid 4-under 68, which she followed with an even par 72 and a final round 73. 
        Williams broke the program's 54-hole record set last season by Gelinas, who posted a three-round minus-1 215 at the Northern Arizona Red Rocks Inv'l (3/18-19/23). 
        Speaking of Gelinas, the sophomore strung together a solid three rounds, opening with a 3-over 75, which she followed with rounds of 73 and 72 to tie five others for 26^th at plus-4 220.
Olson (75-78-75) wound up tied for 68^th at plus-12 228, Phelan (79-76-80) followed in t-86^th at plus-19 235, and sophomore Corinne Lillywhite (86-81-85) placed 97^th playing as an individual at plus-36 252.
 
TRAILBLAZERS AT A GLANCE: Through nine events this season, Williams heads into her final collegiate event as the team scoring leader with a 74.05 stroke average and two individual top-10s through 21 rounds with a team-best 10 par or better rounds. Meanwhile Gelinas (26 rounds) is second at 76.00 with three par or better rounds. 
        Cesarek is third at 76.65 through 17 rounds with two par or better loops and her first collegiate top-5 recorded last week, followed by Olson in fourth (76.69; 2 par/better rounds), and Phelan in fifth (77.20 2 par/better rounds).