Cowgirls, Sooners ready for NCAA Championship beginning Friday
Oklahoma State will be the No. 20 seed and Oklahoma the 26th seed as the NCAA Championship gets under way Friday in Carlsbad, Calif.
For the second straight year, the Omni La Costa Resort and Spa will serve as host site. Its North Course features a challenging 6,330-yard, par 72 layout.
The six-day event begins with 54 holes of stroke play. Following Sunday’s third round, the field of 30 teams will be cut in half. An individual winner will be crowned after Monday’s fourth round, and the top eight schools will compete Tuesday and Wednesday in a match play bracket to determine the NCAA team champion.
The 25th-ranked Oklahoma State women’s golf team, led by sixth-year head coach Greg Robertson, is prepped for its fifth-straight trip to the NCAA Championships.
The Sooners return to the national stage for the first time since 2018 and are seeking their first team national title.
OU enters the 30-team championship as the No. 26 seed after earning a bid with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Norman Regional. Head coach Veronique Drouin-Luttrell’s squad battled through a competitive field and inclement weather at Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club to punch its ticket to La Costa.
This weekend’s forecast calls for cloudy skies and temperatures in the high 60s. The Cowgirls will play in the morning session on Friday and in the afternoon on Saturday with Sunday’s tee times still to be determined.
Fans can track live scoring from all six days via Scoreboard and watch live coverage Monday through Wednesday on the Golf Channel.
After round two, the tee times will be based on standings for the rest of the stroke play portion of the NCAA Championship.
Meet the Field (30 Teams – Based Off Seeding)
- Stanford
- Arkansas
- South Carolina
- Florida State
- Oregon
- Texas
- Wake Forest
- Arizona State
- Southern California
- Virginia
- Northwestern
- LSU
- Ohio State
- Ole Miss
- Mississippi State
- Kansas
- Florida
- Michigan State
- Vanderbilt
- Oklahoma State
- Kansas State
- UCLA
- Iowa State
- Tennessee
- Georgia Southern
- Oklahoma
- UNLV
- Baylor
- Purdue
- Cal State Fullerton
OSU at the NCAA Championships
- Oklahoma State is making its 26th NCAA Championship appearance, which ranks among the top 10 all-time.
- It’s the Cowgirls 31st national finals appearance overall, including five AIAW Championship bids from the 1970s and 80s.
- OSU has made the NCAA Championship in every full season under sixth-year head Coach Greg Robertson (the 2020 event was canceled by COVID-19). This will be his eighth consecutive appearance overall, factoring in his last three years at Kent State (2017-19).
- OSU owns seven top-5 team finishes, highlighted by national runner-up trophies in 2004 and 2021 and a third-place finish in 1982.
- 11 Cowgirls have placed top-10 on the individual leaderboard, including 2010 champion Caroline Hedwall and 2004 runner-up Karin Sjödin.
- A young Cowgirl lineup includes four underclassmen and one junior.
- Latvia native Marta Silchenko (ranked 77th nationally) missed the fall season to injury but has been a table-setter for the Cowgirls this spring, recording back-to-back top-10 finishes at the Big 12 Championship and the Gold Canyon Regional. She tied for 114th in last year’s NCAA Championship as a true freshman.
- Junior Tulsa transfer Grace Kilcrease is ranked No. 33 on the national list and made the All-Big 12 team following a standout season that includes eight top-10 finishes. She won last September’s Carmel Cup and later broke a school record for low-18 (63). This will be her second NCAA Championship appearance. Last year’s tie for 21stmarked the best individual finish by a Tulsa golfer since 2002.
- Freshman Summer Lee has logged 35 rounds in her freshman season (tied with Kilcrease for the team lead) and has recorded five top-20 finishes, highlighted by a win at the Texas State Invitational.
- Fellow first-year, Tarapath Panya will also be making her NCAA Championship debut. The Thailand-native has netted 25 rounds of experience with a season-best seventh place finish at the Dale McNamara Invitational (the best in a Cowgirl debut since 2018).
- Rounding out the lineup is sophomore Ellie Bushnell, who is fresh off a season-best sixth-place showing at the Gold Canyon Regional. This will be her second NCAA Championship after tying for 101st last year.
- Freshman Lucy Darr will act as the substitute for the Cowgirls. The freshman has carded 57 birdies in 19 rounds in her first year collegiately.
Oklahoma excited to be back
“We’re excited to be back at the NCAA Championships and competing for our ultimate goal,” Drouin-Luttrell said. “Our team showed how gritty it is during the regional, and we’ll need that same mentality out at La Costa. We’ll be ready to give it our all and see where everything ends up.”
Oklahoma’s lineup remains unchanged for the third straight event. Juniors Savannah Barber and Gracie Mayo lead the team in the top two spots, followed by senior Raegan Chaney at No. 3. True freshman Audrey Rischer holds the fourth position, and junior MaKayla Tyrrell rounds out the lineup. Isabella Schlick will serve as the team’s substitute for the week.
Oklahoma has turned in its strongest season since 2017–18, highlighted by a team victory at the Paradise Invitational and a pair of individual titles. Gracie Mayo earned medalist honors at the Paradise Invitational in February, while freshman Audrey Rischer claimed the top spot at the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic, the team’s regular-season finale. The Sooners collected three SEC Weekly honors throughout the year – two by Rischer and one by Raegan Chaney. OU posted top-five finishes at every spring tournament leading up to the SEC Championship and placed outside the top five just three times in 11 total events. The team capped its postseason push with a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Norman Regional, its best regional showing since 2013–14.