Women's Golf Wins MSU Fall Invitational, Dupre 2nd After Three-Hole Playoff

WICHITA FALLS, Texas — It was a day for the history books for the St. Mary's University Women's Golf team as they won the MSU Fall Invitational with a three-round total of 879.
 
The Rattlers 879 shatters the previous tournament 54-hole record of 902, set by DBU last season. The Rattlers also tallied a 285 in the final round, which is a tournament low and ties for the fifth-lowest single round in school history, as does the 879.
 
It is the first team title for the Rattlers since they won the King Alfred Invitational on March 20-21, 2023 and it is the second time in three tournaments this fall that the Rattlers have finished ahead of top-ranked DBU in the standings.
 
DBU's Olivia Mitchell needed three extra holes to wrestle the individualist medal away from StMU freshman Savannah Dupre (Boerne, Texas). Both Mitchell and Dupre tied for the lowest round in the tournament's history, recording identical four-under-par 68's in the final round. The two then birdied hole one, and made par on hole two before Mitchell, a senior for the Patriots, eagled the third hole for the win.
 
Dupre's 68 ties for the sixth-lowest round in school history, ties for the lowest round by a freshman at StMU, knotting Maria Regina Gonzalez from 2015 and she becomes only the ninth player in St. Mary's history to shoot a 68 or lower in a round. The 217 shot by her and Mitchell establish a new tournament record, bettering the 219 by Alex Bennett from Oklahoma Christian in 2021 and is tied for the 10th-lowest tournament total in the St. Mary's record books.
 
All five golfers for the Rattlers finished inside the top 25 in the individual race. Both junior Libby Kilbride (Sheffield, England) and senior Rebecca Reed (Midland, Texas) tied for fourth place with identical scores of 221.
 
Reed bounced back after a tough second round to fire a 71 on the final day and move up from eighth to tie for fourth. Kilbride and Dupre flipped places in the standings as Kilbride (73-73-75) held the lead coming into the final round and Dupre (74-75-68) was fourth. 
 
Senior Estelle Beck (Lakeway, Texas) posted a 74 on Tuesday to tie for 11th place with her three-round total of 226 (78-74-74) and junior Orla O'Leary (Galashiels, Scotland) continued to climb the leaderboard, tallying an even-par 72 for to move up another 10 spots into a tie for 23rd (85-74-72=231). 
 
The Rattlers took advantage of the long portions of the course, shooting 15-under-par on the par 5s, 12 strokes better than second-place DBU (-3). The team also nailed 163 pars and 38 birdies to lead the field in both categories and they tied for the tournament lead with two eagles. All five players were under par on the par-5 scoring holes. Dupre tied for the tournament lead at five-under (4.58 stroke average), while Reed was four-under (4.67), Kilbride was -3, O'Leary -2 and Reed -1. DBU was the next closest team with three finishing below par, while West Texas A&M and Midwestern State each had two. 
 
The MSU Fall Invitational wraps up the fall portion of the schedule for the Rattlers. The team will return to competition in the spring.
 

1	St. Mary's (TX)	297	296	285	878
T1	Savannah Dupre (3)	74	75	68	217
T4	Libby Kilbride (1)	73	73	75	221
T4	Rebecca Reed (2)	72	78	71	221
T11	Estelle Beck (4)	78	74	74	226
T23	Orla O'Leary (5)	85	74	72	231