BOULDER CITY, Nev. – Macy Kleve rose up to seventh place on the individual leaderboard and Chadron State took sole possession of sixth place after day two of three at the RMAC Women's Golf Championships.
Chadron State shot a team score of 28-over 316 after shooting a 305 on Sunday. The Eagles had the seventh-best Monday round out of the 10 programs in the field. CSC fell behind Fort Lewis, who entered the day tied with the Eagles in sixth, but Chadron State leapfrogged MSU Denver, who began the day in fifth.
At 45-over 621 for the tournament, Chadron State is four strokes back of the fifth-place Skyhawks and two strokes ahead of the seventh-place Roadrunners. Those two teams will likely be CSC's main competition on Tuesday for placing – the gap between fifth and fourth place is 18 strokes and the gap from seventh down to eighth is eight strokes.
Kleve backed up a round-one 73 with a Monday round of 2-over 74. Just like on Sunday, Kleve excelled on holes 10-18 of the golf course, shooting 1-under 35 on the back nine. Beginning at hole No. 15 due to a shotgun start, Kleve was 2-under on the day through her first six holes with birdies on No. 16 and No. 1.
While Kleve scored well on the par-4s Sunday, the Windsor, Colorado freshman excelled on the par-5s in round two. All three of Kleve's birdies – No. 1, No. 13 and No. 16 – came on par-5 holes, and she made par on the course's other par-5 hole to finish 3-under on par-5s during Monday's round.
Kleve is tied with CSU Pueblo's Thale Victoria Estensen for seventh place after 36 holes at 3-over 147. The duo is four strokes back of the lead and two strokes back of the top five. Victoria Estensen is the No. 84-ranked golfer in all of Division II and the second-highest ranked golfer in the field.
CSC's other scoring golfers – teams take the top four daily totals from their six competing golfers to compile their team total – were
Lauren Knapp,
Aubree Heinsma and
Allison Sanger.
Knapp recovered from a round-one 84 to shoot 7-over 79 in round two, improving to a tie for 37
th place. Knapp matched Kleve with three birdies on the day, with two coming on par-5s and one on a par-3.
Heinsma shot 9-over 81 on the day while Sanger shot 10-over 82.
Klara Kleinig carded a round of 13-over 85 while
Payton Wise shot 17-over 89, although the senior ended on a high when she birdied her last hole of the day, No. 17.
On the overall leaderboard, Sanger is the second-highest CSC golfer behind Kleve in a tie for 31
st place at 15-over 159 and is the only Eagle other than Kleve to be part of CSC's scoring four on both days of the tournament so far.
Heinsma rose from 39
th after round one to a tie for 35
th at 17-over 161. Knapp and Kleinig are two of three golfers knotted at 19-over 163 in a tie for 37
th place. Wise is currently the lowest CSC golfer on the leaderboard at 22-over 166, sitting in 44
th place among a 58-golfer field.
After a shotgun start in round two due to weather forecasts, players will be back to a staggered start off hole No. 1 during Tuesday's championship round. The first golfers are scheduled to tee off at 8:30 a.m. MT (7:30 a.m. PT/local) while Chadron State's first golfer off the tee is set to begin at 9:42 a.m. MT.
Kleve, CSC's last golfer to tee off, will begin her round at 10:27 a.m. MT.
