UNIVERSITY PLACE, Wash. — Nina Choe (68-71-75 - 214, -2) wrapped up her first collegiate golf tournament Tuesday with a tied for fifth-place finish at the Leadership and Golf Invitational at Chambers Bay Golf Course. The New York City native who played in UC Davis' No. 1 spot in the lineup led four Aggies who finished in the top 40 with the others Michelle Ho (T17th, 69-75-76 - 220, +8), Vani Karimanal (T, 27th, 74-74-74 - 222, +6) and Gabriella Ilardi (T40th, 75-79-71 - 225, +9).
Choe started third-round action in second place and was only one shot out of the lead but a quintuple bogey 10 on her first hole of the day on the par-five fourth dropped her out of serious title contention early. Choe played her final 17 holes in two-under par with four birdies and two pars the rest of the way but was unable to get back any closer to the top than the five strokes she finished behind eventual winner Savannah de Brock (71-70-68 - 209) of Eastern Michigan. All four of Choe's birdies came in back-to-back fashion, first on the par-four 12th and 13th holes and then again on two of her final three holes on the par-five first and par-four second. She had bogeys on the par-four seventh and par-three 15th.
Ho started her round with a double bogey on the par-four fifth hole but got back to even-par for the round with birdies on the par-four 10th and 12th before giving four strokes back over her final eight holes with a bogey on the par-three 15th and a triple bogey on the par-three third.
Karimanal shot her third straight two-over par round on Tuesday. She began with 11 straight pars before a birdie on the par-four 12th but had three bogeys over her final five holes on the par-four 14th, par-three 15th and par-four 17th.
Ilardi had Tuesday's best round for the Aggies and tied for the sixth-best of the day in the 92-player field with a one-under par 71 to jump 30 spots up the leaderboard. She started on the eighth hole and birdied the par-four 10th to get to one-under for the round. Ilardi would bogey the par-four 14th and 16th to go back to one-over but back-to-back birdies on the par-five 18th and first holes put her back in the red before she closed her round with five consecutive pars.
Claire Chang (77-73-75 - 225, +9) matched Ilardi's tied for 40th place finish while playing as an individual. She had an up-and-down three-over par round Tuesday that featured three birdies (18, 2, 13), four bogeys (5, 9, 11, 16) and one double bogey (3).
Yu "Yoyo" Bai (76-79-76 - 231, +15) also played as a member of the Aggies and finished in a tie for 68th that was four spots better than she began Tuesday's final round.
Eastern Michigan (289-290-284 - 863, -1) finished atop the team standings seven strokes ahead of second-place Colorado (286-287-297 - 870, +6). Tulsa, SMU, Oregon State and San Jose State also placed ahead of seventh-place UC Davis (286-299-296 - 881, +17) in the 17-team field.
The Aggies continue their four-tournament fall slate at the Colonel Wallenberg Ram Classic hosted by Colorado State (Sept. 21-22) before moving on to the Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational hosted by Kansas (Oct. 5-6) and the Stanford Intercollegiate hosted by Stanford (Oct. 16-18).
LEADERSHIP AND GOLF INVITATIONAL - MONDAY-TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14-15, 2026
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