Baena, Wildcats win tournament

Sophomore Marisa Baena leads while the rest of the squad follows in her footsteps.

Baena, ranked number one nationally, and the No. 2 Wildcats each took home a title this weekend at the Ping/Arizona State Invitational on the par-72, 6,101 yard layout at Karsten Golf Course in Tempe.

Baena led the individual race from beginning to end, firing rounds of 67, 73 and a final round 71, to win by eight strokes over Kellee Booth of ASU. Baena was the only player finishing under par at 5-under 211.

The Wildcats also led wire-to-wire finishing the event at 14-over-par 880, 12 strokes ahead of ASU. UCLA came in third place at 902, Oregon placed fourth at 905 and Texas Christian finished in fifth at 918.

Arizona's Jenna Daniels placed in the top-10, finishing the three day event tied for ninth at 8-over-par 224. The top-10 finish is Daniels first of the year.

Junior Heather Graff continued her string of solid performances coming in tied for 13th place at 226 while sophomore Krissie Register finished in a tie for 20th at 228. Freshman standout Jill Gomric rounded out the Wildcat competitive scores at 231.

Two UA golfers competed on an individual basis. Freshman Shannon Ingalls tied for ninth with Daniels and junior Christina Tollerton tied for 53rd at 238.

Arizona has firmly established itself as the favorite for repeating as the conference champion. The Invitational should serve as excellent indicator as to how the conference tournament will go as ASU, UCLA and Oregon are all ranked in the top-20 in the latest polls released last week.