Led by the steady play of Ela Anacona, the No. 20 University of Arkansas women’s golf team got off to a hot start Monday at the NCAA Ann Arbor (Mich.) Regional.
Anacona shot a 2-under 69 to tie for the first-round lead, and the Razorbacks fired a 7-over 291 to grab a two-stroke lead on the 6,265-yard, par-71 layout at the University of Michigan Golf Course.
Anacona, a junior from Buenos Aires, Argentina, led the field with 16 pars and cashed in birdies on Nos. 13 and 7 for the Razorbacks, who teed off on No. 10. Anacona is tied with Old Dominion’s Jana Melichova, one shot ahead of San Jose State’s Natasha Andrea Oon and Washington’s Stefanie Deng.
The Razorbacks lead host and No. 18 Michigan and Washington by two shots and No. 5 San Jose State and No. 8 Virginia by three.
After those five teams there’s a gap of five strokes to Xavier and North Carolina, which both shot 15-over 299. The top five teams after 54 holes from each of six NCAA regionals will make up the 30-team field for the NCAA championships, scheduled for May 20-25 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The other counting scores for Arkansas were all 3-over 74s carded by juniors Kajal Mistry and Julia Gregg and sophomore Miriam Ayora. Freshman Ffion Tynan, of Llanharry, Wales, had a 2-under round through 16 holes after a birdie on the par 4 7th, but fired a triple-bogey 6 on the next hole and finished with a 76.
Mistry, Gregg and Ayora are tied for 23rd. Mistry, of Johannesburg, birdied her second hole with a 4 on the 507-yard 11th but finished with four bogeys and 13 pars. Gregg, of Farmer’s Branch, Texas, had the most eventful round with three birdies, four bogeys and a double bogey on No. 17.
Ayora tied for second on the day with 14 pars to go along with a birdie on No. 3, a pair of bogeys and one double.
The Razorbacks are scheduled to tee off today at 8:06 a.m. on No. 1 with the Wolverines and Huskies, their two closest pursuers.
Ohio State shot 16-over par to tie Pepperdine and Central Florida for eighth, followed by Virginia Tech (18 over) and Oakland (32 over), which was 25 shots off the pace.