Women's Golf | 9/14/2024 1:26:00 PM

Utah Tech continues its fall season this upcoming Monday and Tuesday at the Weber State Kelsey Chugg Invitational. The two day, 54-hole event will be played at the par-72, 6,097-yard Wolf Creek Golf Club in Eden, Utah.

The 11-team tournament field will include the Trailblazers along with fellow WAC members Southern Utah and Utah Valley. Big Sky members Idaho, Idaho State, Montana, Montana State, Portland State and the host Wildcats, as well as Cal State Bakersfield and Creighton, round out the tourney field. 

The five player lineup for the Trailblazers will feature juniors Jenna Anderson and Jane Olson, sophomores Mia Cesarek and Samantha Phelan, and freshman Maria Purroy Galan.

HEAD COACH LINDSEY STUCKI: Lindsey Stucki (Utah Tech, 2007) is in her ninth season as head coach of the Trailblazer women's golf program. 
            Last season, Coach Stucki led the Trailblazers to eight top-10 showings in 10 team events, highlighted by a fifth-place finish as hosts of its Utah Tech Trailblazer Invitational in February, and a seventh-place showing at the Western Athletic Conference Championships.
            In addition, all seven of her players went on to earn 2023-24 Academic All-WAC, and WGCA Academic All-America Scholars honors, while three others were named to the College Sports Communicators Academic All-District team.  
            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. 
            Coach 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.
            Coach Stucki is joined on her staff this season by first-year assistant coach Caylyn Ponich. Ponich joins the Trailblazer program after completing her four-year collegiate playing career at Utah Valley.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Utah Tech opened the 2024-25 season with a fourth-place showing at the Utah Valley Wolverine Invitational last week at TalonsCove Golf Course in Saratoga Springs, Utah. 
            The Trailblazers combined to tie both the program's second-lowest 54-hole tournament (+11; 875) and 18-hole (final round -1; 287) scores in their season debut. 
            Phelan (70-74-69) and Purroy Galan (70-69-74) both tied Utah Tech's 54-hole school record with scores of minus-3 213 to tie for fifth place on the leaderboard. Phelan fired a collegiate career-low 3-under 69 on her final loop, and Purroy Galan penciled in three birdies as part of a bogey-free 69 in just her second collegiate round.
            Cesarek (75-76-7), who co-lead the team with 10 total birdies, tied for 18^th at plus-5 221, while Anderson (75-79-74) also rolled in 10 birdies to finish t-33^rd at plus-12 228, and Olson (76-80-74) finished in solo 40^th at plus-14 230. 

NEXT UP FOR THE TRAILBLAZERS: The Trailblazers will enjoy a two week break before heading to "The Windy City" to play at the Loyola Chicago Parkinson Family Invitational. The two-day, 54-hole event will be played on Oct. 7-8, at The Merit Club in Libertyville, Ill.