By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

BREMERTON, Wash. -- Willamette University women's golfer Lexi Towner (Fr., Chico, CA/Chico HS) and Maddi Barnett (Jr., Boise, ID/Timberline HS) carded nearly identical scores on the first day of the University of Puget Sound Invitational at Gold Mountain Golf Club on Saturday, March 4. Towner earned a score of 87 and Barnett shot an 88. The tournament is scheduled to conclude on Sunday, March 5 with the final 18 holes.

Towner and four other golfers were tied for 11th place out of 41 golfers overall. Barnett finished the day tied with three competitors for 16th place.

Shiyang Fan from Whitman College topped the leaderboard with a 2-over-par 74. She held a three-stroke lead. Michal Schuster of Whitworth University was second at 77 and Jeankie Aczon from Pacific Lutheran University was third at 79.

Hannah Roh of Whitman owned fourth place with an 80. Desirae Haselwood of PLU was in fifth place after carding an 82.

Whitman led the team standings with a score of 326. Whitworth and Pacific Lutheran were tied for second place, six strokes behind Whitman at 332. Linfield College was fourth at 382, with Pacific University in fifth at 393. Puget Sound was sixth with a score of 405, and Olympic College was seventh at 411. Willamette did not field a complete team.