SAN DIEGO – The Aztec women's golf team will be competing in the Mountain West Championships beginning Monday at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California. The three-day tournament will span Monday through Wednesday with golfers playing 18 holes each day on the Dinah Shore course, the site of the conference championships since 2013.
Seven of the nine Mountain West schools are ranked in Golfstat's top 100 with SDSU having the fourth highest ranking at No. 62 and an adjusted scoring average of 74.07. No. 5 San Jose State is the favorite entering the tournament.
The Aztecs will roll out a lineup of Sara Kjellker, Bernice Olivarez Ilas, Anika Sato, Anna Lina Otten and Esti Garcia Rubio, the same five SDSU has used in its last four tournaments.
Kjellker (Hollviken, Sweden), the reigning Mountain West championship individual winner, leads the Aztecs with an average 18-hole score of 73.5. She has finished in the top 20 in five of SDSU's eight tournaments and has a team-high three rounds below 70. Kjellker is ranked No. 137 in the latest Golfstat individual rankings and could make the NCAA regionals as an individual should the Aztecs fail to qualify as a team.
Olivarez Ilas (Ayala Alabang, Philippines) has scored in 20 of SDSU's 22 rounds (.910) and has the second-best average score on the team (74.3). She has finished second among SDSU golfers in three of the last four tournaments.
Sato (Utsunomiya, Japan) was named the Mountain West Freshman of the Week after leading the Aztecs at the Silverado Showdown with a 222 (+6). She has been the top Aztec finisher in each of SDSU's last two tournaments and in five of eight overall, best on the team.
Otten (Neuss, Germany) has finished third among Aztec golfers in three of their last four tournaments and recorded two top-40 finishes.
Garcia Rubio (San Diego, California) shot a career-best 71 in the second round of the Silverado Showdown and had a career-best 54-hole score of 225 at the tournament before that, the PING/ASU Invitational.
SDSU placed second last year and shot a 284 (-4) in the first round, the lowest 18-hole score in Mountain West Championship history.
The Aztecs have won three of the last four individual titles. Sara Kjellker won last year after shooting a 217 and breaking a tie in a playoff hole, Milagros Chaves won in 2018 and Fernanda Escauriza captured the title in 2017. The championships were canceled in 2020.
SDSU has won the Mountain West Championships twice, in 2015 and 2019.
The Aztecs will tee off at 7:00 a.m. beginning with Garcia Rubio and will be paired with No. 5 San Jose State and Colorado State.
The Dinah Shore Tournament Course (par 72, 6,270 yards), one of the top courses in the Coachella Valley, is home of the ANA Inspiration, the first major tournament of the year on the LPGA Tour. The forecast calls for hot and dry weather with mild winds with temperatures potentially reaching the mid-90s.
Aztecs Competing at MW Championships
