The Grand Canyon women's golf team finished the first day of the GCU Invitational in sixth place Tuesday, when the Lopes' two-round score of 1 over par was just two strokes out of third place but 18 behind leader New Mexico State.
GCU was led by senior
Constanza Guerrero, who delivered two below-par rounds at GCU Golf Course to enter Wednesday's final round in a tie for fifth place.
Guerrero eagled the seventh and 10th holes on her way to a 2-under 70 in the first round. She climbed the leaderboard at the end of her second round with birdies on the 15th and 18th holes.
GCU teammates
Carly Strole, a senior, and
Leighton Shosted, a junior, each bounced back from over-par first rounds to fire 1-under second rounds. That helped the Lopes to be 1 under as a team in the second round after being 2 over in the first round.
New Mexico State leads the 21-team tournament at 17 under par with UC Riverside in second at 9 under. GCU, which finished third in last year's GCU Invitational, is within two strokes of a third-place tie between fellow WAC team Seattle U and Montana State. At even par, fifth-place Long Beach State was one stroke better than GCU on Tuesday.
Strole also cracked the top 20 after the opening day's two rounds with a 19th-place tie. Strole closed the first round with a birdie to get to 1 over. She then shook off a double-bogey start to the second round by sinking birdies on the third and fifth holes and an eagle on the seventh hole.
For GCU's team score, Shosted also finished the first round with a birdie to get to 3 over and then carded a 1-under second round with birdies on Nos. 14 and 18. She is tied for 31st place at 2 over.
Lopes sophomore
Ryan Flynn was at 2 under through her 15 holes and was at even through 27 holes, but a triple bogey at 14 led to a 4-over finish and 44th-place tie.
Senior
Becca Tschetter is in the GCU lineup but did not factor in the team score with rounds of 6-over 78 and 5-over 77. At 11 over, she is tied for 92nd.
Freshman
Lena Tremouille highlighted a trio of GCU individual entries. The native of France tied with Shosted for 31st play with a two-round score of 2 over. She played 2-under golf over her final 15 holes Tuesday.
Another GCU freshman,
Brenna Preap, tied for 44th with Flynn at 4 over with sophomore
Amelia Curtis nearby at 7 over in a tie for 60th place.
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