Grinnell women's golf team continues to be major highlight at NCAA Championships

Pioneers lead several teams ranked higher than them, sit in 6th place in weather-plagued event

Results

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - Halfway through the NCAA Division III Women's Golf Championships, the two major highlights have been the Grinnell College squad and the weather.

The Pioneers, ranked 30th nationally, lead 16 teams ranked ahead of them and are in sixth place when play was halted Wednesday due to a lightning delay. Play was also suspended for five hours Tuesday due to weather.

Grinnell is sixth in the 34-team field with each Pioneer golfer having anywhere from three to six holes left to play in the second round. Kavya Keshav '26 continues to impress and is tied for fifth place in a field of 176 golfers.

The Pioneers, who had to finish their first round Wednesday morning, concluded it with a score of 305 at Kingsmill Resort's Plantation Course. They moved to the River Course after that and began on the back nine, which they completed and moved onto the front nine.

At this point, the Pioneers are 26 strokes over par and trail only five teams ranked ahead of them - No. 2 Emory (plus-10), 16th-ranked Middlebury (plus-17), No. 11 Amherst (plus-22), No. 6 Wellesley (plus-23) and 22nd-ranked Huntington (plus-25).

Grinnnell is directly in front of top-ranked Carnegie Mellon and plenty of other teams ranked highly.

Keshav posted a 2-under-par 70 on the front nine, posting three birdies along the way while recording the sixth-best score in program history. Amy Nguyen '26 was next in line with a 77 with the aid of a birdie, Emily Lackershire '27 and Vidushi Keni '26 added 79s each and Mary Li '25 posted an 84. Li had two birdies and the other three one apiece.

Keshav is 1-over at this point of the tourney, Keni is plus-7, Li is at plus-11 and Lackershire and Nguyen are each 14-over. Keni and Li have each posted three birdies during the second round.

Four golfers are tied for first place at even-par.

As it stands, the Pioneers should make the 15-team cut into the next round.

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