Mehaffey put a cap on a fantastic three rounds of golf as she returned a third round of 73 to add to her opening rounds of 69 and 66 for a 208 total (-8), which was good enough to earn her a share of the Regional Medalist honors with Oklahoma’s Kaitlin Milligan.
Mehaffey becomes the eighth Sun Devil to accomplish the feat, with her coach Missy Farr-Kaye saying; “So proud of Olivia with her Co-Medalist finish. Arkansas, here we come!”
“What a day,” Farr-Kaye added after her team qualified. “We fought hard all day long and hung in there to punch our ticket to the NCAA Championship next week in Arkansas.”
Julie McCarthy and her Auburn team are also set for the NCAA Championships after a fifth placed finish at the Auburn Regional courtesy of a final hole bogey from Elena Hualde Zúñiga and they have now clinched their spot at nationals for the 18th time in program history.
“That was the best feeling I could ask for,” Hualde Zúñiga said. “Being the last one to hug all my teammates waiting for me up there. Even though it was not a good hole for me, all that counts is that we made it into the top six.”
“I’m so impressed with those young ladies,” added Auburn head coach Melissa Luellen. “There was a lot of pressure. There was a lot of pressure playing at home. Elena, especially, loves to play to a crowd. She was asking me, ‘Are there going to be more people out here today?’ Just to have the support of our Auburn people, it was just a really great theater to finish in.”
McCarthy herself was tied for 51st at the event following rounds of 76, 75 and 74 and the NCAA Championships will begin Friday, May 17 from The Blessings Golf Club in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
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