ORMOND BEACH, Florida - After three days of oppressive heat, the temperature dropped, the winds picked up and so did the scoring. Even with a sloppy fourth round, the Seminole State Women's Golf Team capped off a memorable season with their third NJCAA National Championship in program history. SSC finished first by an impressive 45 strokes over instate rival Daytona State College. Ranger Community College finished third over 100 strokes behind.

Seminole built a commanding lead with rounds of 298, 293 and 292 during those hot days. After that, the only drama was which Raider was going to win individual honors. Minori Nagano (right) finished first with -5, 283 over the four rounds. Alex Giles, nursing a troublesome neck, came in second with a +4, 292 to earn All-America status for a second time. Minami Kudo (+20, 308) and Alexandra Stevenson (+29, 317) joined Nagano and Giles on the NJCAA All-America team.

Coach Christa Teno enjoyed her third championship (2015 was the first), but was clearly disappointed with the final round scores. "I love winning and am proud of our ladies, but I hate bad golf and we played bad today." Teno also noted her thoughts on the four sophomores who are all graduating and moving on to four-year schools. "I will miss these women, they (Giles, Stevenson, Ranida Inpan, Mary Ma) have all been great representatives of Seminole State College." All four graduating sophomores have earned athletic scholarships at NCAA universities (Incarnet Word, Georgia Southern, Converse College and Wingate University, respectively).

This was the Raiders second straight championship (2019, 2021). The argument could be made that this would have been their third straight as the team was #1 in the nation when the pandemic shut down the 2020 season.

 

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