Freshman Thomas Leads UW To 25 Shot Victory

Tuesday, September 18

Trysting Tree -- Corvallis, Ore.

All Day

University of Washington

Oregon State Invitational

September 18, 2012 | Women's Golf

By: Washington Athletics

Sept. 18, 2012

• OSU Invitational Final Results

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- It is hard to imagine that the Huskies could draw up a better start to their 2012-13 women's golf season than what occurred in Corvallis over the last two days.

The team combined to shoot 11-under 853 in the 54-hole Oregon State Invitational to win the team title by 25 strokes and freshman Charlotte Thomas won medalist honors in her college debut to headline a top-10 individual leaderboard that featured five Huskies.

Washington took a 26 shot lead into Tuesday's final round at Trysting Tree Golf Club and sputtered early before gathering themselves and cruising to the team victory. They shot even-par 288 - their worse round of the tournament - yet can stake claim to three of the four team rounds that was under 290 during the competition.

"I think we learned that we have some depth and that we can be pretty good," Husky Coach Mary Lou Mulflur said after her team's dominating win. "We feel pretty good about ourselves.

1	Washington	285	280	288	853
1	Charlotte Thomas (1)	70	72	69	211
T3	SooBin Kim (2)	71	70	73	214
T6	Jennifer Yang (3)	69	75	72	216
T8	Cyd Okino (4)	75	68	74	217
T19	Ying Luo (5)	80	70	74	224

"We had three pretty good rounds, and returning today after 36 holes in one day can sometimes be very hard. I thought we did a very admirable job today."

The win gives the Huskies back-to-back years starting out with a victory. The season-opening wins are Washington's lone victories since 2005.

"We didn't make very many mistakes," Mulflur said about the key to Washington's dominating play. "We didn't count any big numbers and that always makes a big difference."

In a tournament that so many Huskies shined, Thomas shined brightest. The youngster has yet to step foot in a UW classroom, but she can stake claim to a collegiate golf victory.

"I am very excited and I can't believe it," said Thomas, who finished at 5-under 211 after at final round 3-under 69. "It is still settling in, but it feels real good."

The Huskies lineup is littered with inexperienced youngsters. Three sophomores and two freshman made up the squad this week. But it didn't matter.

Sophomore SooBin Kim started the round in first, but shot 73 on Tuesday and finished tied for third. She ended up at 2-under 214.

Sophomore Jennifer Yang and Kelli Bowers tied for sixth at even-par 216. Both shot 72 in the final round. Bowers, a junior, was competing as an individual.

Cyd Okino also recorded a top-10 finish. The sophomore tied for 8th at 1-over 217 after a final round 74.

Freshman Ying Luo ended up tied for 19th in her debut. She started the tournament with an 80, but settled down and shot 70 and 74 in the final two rounds. She was +8 overall.

Redshirt freshman Monica Huang and the lone senior Brittany Tallman each competed as individuals for Washington. Huang ended up tied for 29th and Tallman finished tied for 36th.

The strong tournament has Thomas and her teammates pumped up for the season.

"It was very cool that we did so well," she said. "We can't wait for the next tournament."

The Huskies will take almost two weeks off before returning to action in early October for the Windy City Classic.

Team Leader Board

Course:Trysting Tree Golf Club: Par 72 - 6141 yards

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