The Iowa women’s golf team survived three rounds of tough competition at the Mountain View Collegiate in Tucson, Arizona, on Tuesday — ultimately leading to a respectable sixth place.

Competing from Sunday, March 2, to Tuesday, March 4, Hawkeye golf ended the tournament shooting +33, within three strokes of fifth-place Wisconsin at +30 in a heated field of 14 Division I collegiate programs at the Preserve at Saddlebrooke. 

Round one was filled with numerous low scores for Iowa with three players producing a round of under or even par — leading the team to shoot an impressive 290 for two over. The trio of Maura Peters at 70, Ximena Benites at 72, and Riley Lewis at 72 led to Iowa’s top-five team place finish at the end of round one. Peters was on fire in her opening round, shooting an impressive -2.

The Hawkeyes were in close contention for first place to open round two of play but were unable to gain any ground on the competition. There, they closed the day in sixth with veteran leadership from fourth-year Paula Miranda leading the way for the team with a final score of 75. Two other Hawkeyes were close behind Miranda with Peters firing a 78 and Benites shooting a 79.

Lewis closed round two with an 80, though, putting the Hawkeyes in sixth place with a 602 team score through two days with a +23 drop-off on the day. Unable to make a jump in the final round, Iowa cemented itself with a sixth-place overall finish upon firing +8 on the last day. 

Benites and Miranda both shot an impressive two under par on the day, but the duos’ success was not contagious. Lewis was the third-best score on the team with a 75 while Kaitlin Hanna’s score of 81 was used to round out the final round of the tournament for Iowa.

Up next

The Iowa women’s golf team will have a short turnaround in preparation for the Briars Creek Invitational in Johns Island, South Carolina, this upcoming Monday and Tuesday, hosted by Charleston.