Gaccion shares Lady Red Wolves Classic title; Bears finish fourth

Alethea Paige Gaccion is only in her second year of college golf. She’s already been a medalist twice.

She got the second one Tuesday at the Lady Red Wolves Classic, where the Central Arkansas sophomore finished 7 under par and tied two other players for first.

There were 82 golfers in the field. None of them beat her.

Gaccion opened with back-to-back 2-under rounds during Monday’s 36-hole grind. She came back Tuesday and shot 3 under, her lowest round of the event.

The stats back it up. She made 14 birdies and 35 pars over 54 holes. Birdies win tournaments, but pars keep you in them, and she had plenty of both.

Gaccion got the headlines. The rest of the team had a solid two days of its own.

UCA finished fourth out of 13 teams at 4 over par.

Slow start, then a climb

It didn’t look like a top-four week early. The Bears were seventh after the first round.

By the end of Monday, they’d moved up three spots to fourth. That’s what a 36-hole day can do when the second round goes better than the first.

Tuesday’s final round didn’t change much. UCA made a run but finished the day in the same spot it started.

Austin Peay shot even par and finished four strokes ahead. Little Rock (6 over) and West Georgia (9 over) were the other UAC teams in the field, and both finished behind.

The Bears were at their best on par 4s. They averaged 4.03 strokes on those holes, and nobody in the field did better.

The team made 183 pars, second-most of anyone. Its 40 birdies tied for fifth.

The other holes were a mixed bag. UCA averaged 3.2 on par 3s, which ranked sixth, and 4.97 on par 5s, good for a tie for seventh.

How the rest of lineup scored

Senior Nanami Hayakawa was the No. 2 finisher for the Bears, tying for 31st at 4 over.

Her first round was her worst at 4 over. She shot 1 over next and finished with a 1-under round Tuesday.

Emma Leroy Fabry, a freshman, and Gudrun Thorsteinsdottir, a sophomore, each finished 5 over. They took different routes to get there.

Fabry shot 1 over, then 4 over, then closed at even par. Thorsteinsdottir went 2 over, 1 over and 2 over.

Senior Maggie Huett was 7 over for the week. She opened at 4 over and lowered her score in each of the next two rounds, shooting 2 over and then 1 over.

Maria Carlon, a freshman, played as an individual. Her rounds of 3 over, 6 over and 7 over added up to 16 over.

Anyone who wants every hole can find it on the tournament scoreboard.

Up next in Hot Springs

UCA doesn’t get much time off.

The team’s next event is the Diamante Intercollegiate in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on Oct. 18-20.

Play starts Sunday, five days after the Bears wrapped up at Sage Meadows Golf Club.

Gaccion will show up with two medalist finishes in two years. That’s not a bad way for a sophomore to start a résumé.