Career Week For Starkute Propels Arizona To Top Three in Hawai’i

KAILUA KONA, Hawai’i – No. 13 Arizona Women’s Golf capped a successful Fall schedule with a third-place finish at the Nanea Pac-12 Preview with a 3-under performance as a team in Wednesday’s third and final round. Senior Gile Bite Starkute posted the best finish of her career in Hawai’i, finishing in third place at 7-under par.

“This was a good way to end our Fall schedule with another strong team performance,” said head coach Laura Ianello. “This week was full of some great rounds of golf by our lineup, including one of Gile’s best weeks of her career. Julia set the tone for us in the first round with her 66 and all our young ladies had their moments of great golf. Our entire lineup finished in the top 25 of the individual leaderboards, which is an impressive feat. This week in Hawai’i not only capped a great fall for us, but it sets us up for a successful spring.”

Starkute tied for third place in the Wildcat Invitational as a freshman and since then had tallied ninth-place finishes on three separate occasions, including twice this fall. The native of Vilnius, Lithuania was dominant on Nanea Golf Club’s longest holes this week, tying Stanford’s Rose Zhang for the tournament lead in par-5 scoring.

Arizona’s lowest round on Wednesday came from freshman Nena Wongthanavimok who fired a 4-under round of 69. She and fellow freshman Julia Misemer both ended their weeks tied for 19^th. Sophomores Lilas Pinthier (tied for 11^th) and Carolina Melgrati (tied for 25^th) carded final tournament scores of even par and 5-over respectively.

By finishing third this week in Hawai’i, Arizona has secured top-10 team finishes in all four of its competitions this fall. The Wildcats finished in the top three in a trio of those competitions, led by a runner-up showing at the Mason Rudolph Championship in Tennessee.

The Wildcats will return to action in 2023 with the Superstition Challenge in Gold Canyon, Arizona in the third week of January.