Soydara finishes in 4th place at National Tournament

Results of Round 4 and Final Results of the 2023 NJCAA Div. III National Golf Championship at Chautauqua Golf Club (Par 72) in Chautauqua, NY.

Women:
*M State Freshman Ellia Soydara earns 1st Team All-American honors finishing 4th overall individually.
*She is the first Spartan women's All-American golfer in modern history.
*Soydara shot an 80 in the final round for a total of 322 (80-81-81-80).
*Trinity Ahing of Sandhills earned individual national champion honors with a 4 day 300 (74-73-75-78)
*Oxford College of Emory earned the team championship with a 4 day total of 1546. The first ever NJCAA Div. III golf champion crowned (Previously all NJCAA women's golf divisions competed in the same championship, it is now split in to Div. I and Div. III).

Men:
*Spartan Men shot 331 in the final round and finished in 7th place.
*Spartans finished with a 4 day total of 1108 (330-326-321-331).
*Joel Quam and Leo Stephan led the Spartans in t with rounds of 79.
*Leo Stephan was the low Spartan 4 day scorer with a 315 (80-79-77-79)
*Stepan ended the season as with the Spartans lowest individual scoring average at 79.2.
*This was the 11th consecutive appearance by the M State men in the national tournament.  The longest streak national in Div. III NJCAA.
*Sandhills CC won the team national championship with a new record total of 1147 (292-284-286-285). This broke the previous record by 21 shots.
*Ben Read of Sandhills CC earned individual national championship honors with a new record total of 277 (72-70-67-68) at 11 under par.

Complete results of the championship can be found here: https://jccjayhawks.com/events/njcaa-stats

M State Head Coach Jason Retzlaff Quote:

"Congratulations to Ellia on being our first Spartan All-American women's golfer in modern history.  She played so steady under pressure and wowed many of the people in New York with her tremendous driving ability.  This honor is something Ellia has earned with a lot of hard work, dedication, and love of golf. She made history for our women's golf program this week. We are so thankful she is in our program and look forward to even better things next season."

Photo: Ellia Soydara with her 4th place flag and 1st team All-American honors. (Photo taken by Jeff Haukos)