WEST CHICAGO, Ill. (naccsports.org) --- Aurora University posted a final-round 301 Monday to capture the team title at the 2026 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Women's Golf Championships at St. Andrews Golf and Country Club.
The Spartans finished the 54-hole event with an 892 total after posting team rounds of 297, 294, and 301. The total obliterated the previous 54-hole championship record total of 931 set by Aurora in 2024 as all three rounds in 2026 bettered the standing 18-hole team scoring record of 303 set in last year's final round, also by Aurora.
Marian University (314-320-315--949) edged newcomer Lake Forest College (319-316-317--952) for second place, while St. Norbert College (324-318-328--970) took fourth just ahead of Milwaukee School of Engineering (326-338-319--983). Edgewood University (341-353-357--1,051) finished solidly in sixth, while Concordia University Wisconsin (385-361-370--1,116), Benedictine University (390-384-379--1,153), Wisconsin Lutheran College (398-379-385--1,162), and Alverno College (484-461-467--1,412) rounded out the team scoring.
Aurora freshman Avery Arendell put together the round of the day Monday with a 2-under-par 70 to finish atop the medalist standings at 1-over 217. Arendell was 5-under after 14 holes on the strength of four birdies and an eagle before recording bogeys on three of her final four holes.
She won by five strokes over teammate Anna Simpson (74-74-74--222) and defending individual champion Yinan Lu of Marian (73-75-74--222). Three other Spartans joined Arendell and Simpson in earning all-NACC honors by placing in the top 10. Thanpimol Tharpanawongwech - who carded a 70 in Sunday's second round - was fourth (76-70-78--224), while Anna Coccia (72-78-79--229) was sixth and Ava Kalt (76-80-79--235) was seventh. Lake Forest had two all-conference finishers in Paulina Molteni Posada (tie-eighth, 83-75-78--236) and Libby Hearst (10th, 81-80-78--237), as did St. Norbert. Vivien Ninham (80-76-72) finished fifth for the Green Knights, while Ava Frederiksen (78-77-81--236) tied for eighth.
The 2-under 70s posted by both Arendell and Tharpanawongwech match the lowest aggregate 18-hole score in a NACC Women's Golf Championship originally set by Concordia Wisconsin's Muriel McIntyre in 2011, also at St. Andrews. Arendell and Tharpanawongwech do, however, share the NACC Championship record for score in relation to par as the 2011 mark posted by McIntyre was posted when the championship course at St. Andrews was a par-71 circuit.
As the low freshman in the field, Arendell was also named NACC Freshman of the Year.
She is the seventh Aurora golfer to earn medalist honors and the seventh to be named NACC Freshman of the Year.
The Aurora University coaching staff of Justin Wyeth and Ellie Knight was recognized by its peers as this year's NACC Coaching Staff of the Year. It is the 11th time overall and the sixth time in a row that Wyeth or a Wyeth-led staff has been recognized with the league's top coaching honor in women's golf.
As NACC champions, Aurora earns the league's automatic berth in the 2027 NCAA Division III Women's Golf Championships slated for mid-May at Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia.