MESA, Ariz.— With a solid third day of action the Barton Community College women’s golf team is now among the nation’s top 10 with just one day left at the NJCAA National meet at Longbow Golf Club.

The Cougars improved by 23 strokes from their day two total and were 20 strokes better than their opening round. That escalated Barton from 11th, where it sat the opening two days, to 10th as the Cougars passed Sandhills (NC) Community College.

The Cougars are six strokes clear of Sandhills as they head into the final day of play but are 19 strokes behind Rend Lake (Ill) for ninth.

Headlining the move up the leaderboard was sophomore Natthakan Teeratrakul. She improved six places and into a tie for 23rd after shooting her best round of the tournament. Teeratrakul shot a 6-over 78 to give her a 3-day total of 244 – just two strokes out of another Top 20 finish.

Teeratrakul was a Top 20 finisher last season, which earned her All-American honors. She was able to avoid double bogeys and higher for the first time in the meet and carded a pair of birdies on her way to the 78.

Hye Rin Kim had another solid day and was on her way to her best round of the tournament as well before trouble struck on the 18th and final hole. After putting all par and bogeys on her scorecard through 17 holes and just a par 5 away from an 80 Kim ran into trouble with a triple-bogey, finishing with an 83. That gave her a 3-day total of 250 tied for 34th.

A big reason for the 23-stroke improvement came on the strength of Barton’s third and fourth golfers.

Abbie Thelen and Madison Walden both posted their best scores of the meet by at least six strokes. For Thelen it was eight strokes better than her best score. The sophomore fired an 89 after carding a 97 and 101 the opening two days. Walden shot a 91 after shooting 97 and 103.

Thelen had three birdies on the day and was impressive with her 6-over 42 on the front side that included two birdies. The back nine wasn’t as kind as she failed to par a hole after her birdie on the Par 3 11th. She is currently in 79th place with a 3-round total of 287.

Walden is one place back in 80th after her 91 and 3-day total of 291. During her third round Walden also had a very good first nine capped by a birdie on the Par 5 9th hole to finish with a 43. Walden ran into trouble in the middle of the back nine going 6-over on the 14th and 15th holes combined as she shot 48 for her 91 total.

After posting Barton’s third best score on the second day, Madison Werth fell back to a 107 for her third round. Werth wasn’t able to find par all day long, shooting 54-53 for her 107. She sits in a tie for 95th with a 313 total.

The top seven individual spots are all held by Florida schools Seminole State and Daytona State. Tiffany Chan of Daytona State was on fire in the third round shooting a 5-under par 67 to take a 4-stroke lead on the field with a three day total of 1-under 215.

Seminole State is leading the team race and comfortably so with an 895 – 17 shots ahead of Daytona State.

Top 10 Individuals – Par 72
1 Tiffany Chan (Daytona St), 71-77-67—215
2 Sydney Legacy (Seminole St), 76-72-71—219
3 Josefine Garton (Seminole St), 73-73-75—221
4 Ji Sun Kang (Daytona St), 76-78-70—224
5 Cynthia Bounleutay (Seminole St), 78-77-71—226
6 Caitlin Huiting (Seminole St), 76-76-77—229
7 Whitney Stevenson (Daytona St), 77-76-77—230
7 Nikita Arjun (Spartanburg Meth), 76-82-72—230
9 Ivon Reijers (Redlands), 77-82-74—233
10 Charatta Thongbai (Mesa), 74-80-80—234
10 Devanshi Naik (Western Texas), 77-76-81—234
10 Iben Hvass (Western Texas), 77-81-76—234


Barton scores
23 Natthakan Teeratrakul, 81-85-78—244
34 Hye Rin Kim, 86-81-83—250
79 Abbie Thelen, 97-101-89—287
80 Madison Walden, 97-103-91—291
95 Madison Werth, 109-97-107—313

Team scores
1 Seminole State (Fla), 303-298-294—895
2 Daytona State (Fla), 304-310-298—912
3 Mesa (Ariz), 313-318-316—947
4 McLennan (Texas), 322-319-318—959
5 Western Texas, 322-324-319—965
6 Redlands (Okla), 319-331-323—973
7 Tyler (Texas), 338-344-328—1010
8 Iowa Western, 353-346-327—1026
9 Rend Lake (Ill), 349-352-346—1047
10 Barton, 361-364-341—1066
11 Sandhills (NC), 363-360-349—1072
12 Des Moines Area (Iowa), 368-359-356—1083
13 John A Logan (Ill), 356-377-356—1089
14 Pima (Ariz), 370-374-373—1117
15 Bismark State (ND), 438-431-419—1288