Stribling guides Gauchos to fourth place finish

The Saddleback women's golf team finished in fourth place at the CCCAA State Tournament on Monday in Morro Bay.  Katie Stribling had her best round of the season in finishing third in medalist play.

Saddleback entered the round in sixth place after a team score of 331 on Sunday.  The Gauchos knew if they could piece together another good round, that they had a chance to move up on the team leaderboard.  They did just that, shooting 330 on Monday and passing two teams to finish in fourth place.

Stribling entered the day in fourth place in medalist play and was going to have to shoot a season-low round to have any chance at an individual medalist honor.  She finished with a 1-under-par round of 71, finishing two shots back of Haruka Koda and Jessie Lin from College of the Canyons.  Stribling had the low round of the day, shooting even par 35 on the front nine and 1-under-par 36 on the back. 

Stribling had some solid help from the rest of the team.  On day one, Anna Stowers shot a round of 9-over-par (83) while Sunhae Son shot 84 in round two on Monday.  Son's two-day total of 170 put her in a tie for 23^rd place in medalist play.

"I'm really proud of the way this team battled throughout the season," head coach Bob Bosanko said.  "I knew we had the talent and we struggled during the middle part of the season, but we played our best golf down the stretch."

Saddleback's fourth place finish is the second best finish in program history and the best finish since 2003 when the Gauchos won the state title. 

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