WAC Champions! Tarleton State Women’s Golf wins WAC Championship on heels of Depadt’s medalist honors

LITCHFIELD PARK, Ariz. - In one of the best success stories a Tarleton State Athletics program has produced at the NCAA Division I level, Texan Women's Golf has further elevated its incredible 2024-25 campaign with a conference championship.

Tarleton State Women's Golf won the WAC Championship on Wednesday among the nine-team Western Athletic Conference field to claim Tarleton State's first automatic NCAA Tournament berth in the university's first full-fledged year at the NCAA Division level. Texan Women's Golf is the second program to win the conference tournament in the D1 era (Texan Baseball in 2024) and will become the second to participate in an NCAA sanctioned postseason tournament (Texan Football in 2024).

Tarleton State's capped off a special run at Wigwam Golf Course in Litchfield Park, Arizona, on Wednesday to win the individual championship by four strokes. She turned in a final round -6 (66) effort to finish the three-day, 54-hole outing at -10 (72-68-66).

Tarleton State as a team won by three strokes at +12 (294-283-299). Besides Depadt winning at -10, tied-sixth at +3 (73-69-77), tied-13th at +7 (74-72-77), tied-31st at +15 (75-74-82), while logged back-to-back 79's in the final two rounds after withdrawing in the first.

Team-wise, Abilene Christian took second at +15 (302-282-295), California Baptist took third at +27 (295-304-292), Seattle U took fourth at +28 (304-299-289), UT Arlington took fifth at +30 (295-298-301), Grand Canyon took sixth at +34 (299-295-304), Utah Tech took seventh at +43 (302-298-307), Utah Valley took eighth at +57 (319-294-308) and Southern Utah took ninth at +68 (315-315-302).

Tarleton State Women's Golf has returned to prominence following a dominant run at the NCAA Division II level. Across an 11-year span toward the end of the D2 days, the Texans qualified for the NCAA Regional Tournament 10 times, and won 11 Lone Star Conference Championships while members of the LSC. This marks Tarleton State Women's Golf's first conference championship since 2018, the last time they had the full team play in the NCAA Regional Tournament, and have representation in the NCAA Regional Tournament for the first time since 2019 (Junie Khaw as an individual).

Depadt becomes the first Texan to win medalist honors at the conference tournament championship since Casey Wild won the LSC Championship Tournament in 2017. Depadt dominated the 48-woman field thanks to a tournament-best 15 birdies. She was top-five in the field on all three types of holes, leading all scoring on Par 4's at -4, tied-third on Par 3's at -1 and tied-third on Par 5's at -5. She saved her best for last by turning in a -6 (66) in the final round, the best outing by any golfer throughout the three-day event.

As a team, Tarleton State had the most birdies in the event (40). Out of 10 tournaments this season, the Texans have won two, finished top-two in six, finished top-three in seven, and finished top-four in eight.

Tarleton State will now await the announcement of which NCAA Regional Tournament the Texans will participate in. There are six sites with action planned for May 5-7; Birdwood Golf Course in Charlottesville, Virginia, OSU Golf Club's Scarlet Course in Columbus, Ohio, Superstition Mountain Golf and Country Club in Golf Canyon, Arizona, University Club of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, The Rawls Course in Lubbock, Texas, Jimmie Austin OU Golf Club in Norman, Oklahoma.

Each of the six regional sites will feature 12 teams and six individuals, with the top four teams and top two individuals (not on an advancing team) qualifying for the NCAA Championships, which will be played at the Champions Course at Omni La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California, on May 16-21. There are 72 teams that qualify for regional play, with 36 individuals not on an advancing team.

The NCAA Division I women's golf regional selections for 2025 will be announced on April 23.