By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications

TACOMA, Wash. -- Maddi Barnett (Jr., Boise, ID/Timberline HS) of Willamette University was tied for 14th place and teammate Lexi Towner (Fr., Chico, CA/Chico HS) was tied for 16th place, after 18 holes in the NWC Tournament on Saturday, April 22. The tournament, being held at the Tacoma Country & Golf Club, will conclude with the second round on Sunday, April 23.

Barnett shot 81 on Saturday and was tied for 14th place with Shiyang Fan from Whitman College. Towner finished the day with an 83 to gain part of a four-way tie for 16th place.

Kristin Elich of George Fox University led the individual leaderboard after one round with a score of 2-over-par 74. Iris Kawada and Sydney Maluenda, both from GFU, were tied for second place at 75. Two golfers from Lewis & Clark College, Annie McCutchan and Sofia Vigil, shared fourth place at 76.

A three-way tie for sixth place with matching scores of 79 was held by Rachel Drgastin and Madison Perry from George Fox, plus Maggie Peters from Whitworth University. Another three golfers were tied for ninth at 79. They were Claire Burke of L&C, Phoebe Nguyen of Whitman and Michal Schuster of Whitworth.

George Fox topped the team standings at 302. The Bruins held a 15-stroke lead. Lewis & Clark was second at 317 and Whitman was third at 323. Whitworth followed in fourth place at 324, with Pacific Lutheran University in fifth at 338. University of Puget Sound was sixth at 357, Pacific University was seventh at 363 and Linfield College was eighth at 383. Willamette is not fielding a complete team.