MELBOURNE, Fla. - It was a historic day for the Daytona State College women's golf team, who won their 11th NJCAA Division I National Championship at Duran Golf Club on Thursday.
The Falcons shot 2-over 294 in the final round to win the title at 6-under 1162 which is the lowest score posted by a national champion and they did it with five players from the state of Florida.
It has been a bit, been six years and this group is a special group," Daytona State College women's golf coach Laura Brown said. "This group has known each other since junior golf so the team culture that we have is special because they have known each other for years, Kaley (Amuso) and Tylar (Whiting) have played since they were six at U.S. Kids, they have competed against each other and are now teammates and they know how long it has been (since we had won) and wanted to be the group to end it."
Daytona State College's Angelica Holman shot even par 73 in the final round to win the individual title at 8-under 284. The sophomore from Fort Pierce had the best round of the tournament in the second round, shooting a 7-under 66 and three of the four rounds was par or better.
Teammate Analiese Raath, of Lakeland, finished tied for third overall at 5-under 287 after a 76 in the final round. Samantha Paradise, of Tampa, and South Daytona's Whiting finished tied for ninth overall while Orlando native Amuso finished tied for 17th overall.
"We have talked a lot about this the past couple of weeks and I have said they could get this done," Brown said. "We were focused on team much more than individuals all week. They were super consistent all week and everyone contributed."
Seminole State College made a run in the front nine and it got close as the headed to the back nine.
"I was nervous at the turn, but I was confident in them because they had played well on the back 9 and they came through. I am so impressed and could not be any happier with how they played," Brown said.
Seminole State College finished with a 295 on Thursday and was second overall in the tournament at 4-over. Salysa Mason tied for fifth overall, shooting 1-over par for the tournament. Teammate Kalley Kleinatland was eighth overall and Jane Huang was tied for ninth.
Eastern Florida State College finished eighth overall in the tournament for the second straight year.
Seminole State College, who had won the past four titles, and Daytona State College have now finished 1-2 in the past 11 national tournaments.