Taking second place in a field of five teams on Wednesday, NIU women’s golf traveled to Phoenix, Arizona, to compete in the 2026 GCU Invitational, hosted by Grand Canyon University.
“Overall, a good tournament for us as we had three consistent rounds,” NIU head coach Kim Kester said via NIU Athletics. “A couple rounds started a little rocky with playing some of the harder holes off the bat but the ladies fought back extremely well.”
The Huskies’ final score for the invitational was 891, 27-over par. NIU finished 30 strokes behind the winners, Grand Canyon University, and five strokes ahead of the University of Idaho, who took third.
Grand Canyon University took first place, winning by 30 strokes for a score of 3-under par. GCU freshman Alexis Vakasiuola was the individual champion of the event, winning by 8 strokes, with a score of 11-under par.
NIU’s best round of the invitational was the third round on Wednesday, with a score of 7-over par, 295.
The top finisher for the Huskies was sophomore Mia Raines, who finished in third. Raines finished 2-strokes under par, with her best score coming in the first round. Raines shot 3-under par in the first frame, even with par in the second and 1-over par in the third.
Sophomore Dakota Tallent tied for 9th place with a score of 9-over par, 225. Tallent’s best score of the weekend was the second round with 73 strokes, 1-over par.
Coming in tied for 13th place, graduate student Caroline Kent finished with a score of 228, 12 over par. Freshman Emile Chile finished 17th, finishing 15 over par with a score of 231.
The last Huskie on the leaderboard was sophomore Alexa Ouellett, who finished in 25th place. Ouellett shot 3-over par in the first round, but a 12-over par in the second frame and 9-over par in the third led to a 24-over par finish, with a score of 240.
UP NEXT
The Huskies’ next invitational begins on March 14 at the Valspar Invitational at the Forest Hills Golf Course in Augusta, Georgia. Live stats will be updated on SCOREBOARD.
