W. Golf Takes Fourth at Ivies Over Dartmouth

The Harvard women’s golf team finished its season in fine fashion—and with a trophy to boot—as it bested Dartmouth and took fourth place at the Ivy Championship in April.

While Yale, Princeton and Brown dominated the league this year, an intense rivalry sprang up between the Crimson and the Big Green, complete with its own ceremonial hardware. The tension had been heightened by Dartmouth’s higher finish at the Brown Invitational just two weeks earlier.

“We’re very happy to have the trophy back for the summer,” junior captain Merry Chiampa said. “It was a long, tough course that simply allowed the better team to win.”

Junior Kathryn Kuchefski was Harvard’s best scorer as she took sixth place with a 24-over 241. Chiampa followed in the Crimson ranks, shooting a 30-over 247 to earn a share of 12th place.

Freshman Jennifer Cronan and sophomores Carrie Baizer and Jeen-Joo Kang capped off Harvard’s young entrants in the contest and finished in ties for 16th, 23rd and 28th, respectively.

The Crimson kicked off its year with a sixth-place finish at the Dartmouth Invitational, where the Big Green tied for fourth. Kuchefski, a visiting student from Amherst College, began her time with the Crimson with a tie for 10th, followed by Chiampa at 18th.

However, the following weekend, Harvard managed to grab fourth at the Yale Invitational on the difficult and unpredictable Course at Yale. The Crimson placed ahead of both Dartmouth and Penn in the standings, jumping five spots on the second day of competition.

“It was pretty exciting for us,” Baizer said after the tournament. “Each stroke really counted in this tournament. The best part was how we played better [on Sunday compared to Saturday]. Last year, a lot of our scores were higher the second day.”

Harvard earned its only top finish of the year at the Mount Holyoke Invitational—where Chiampa and freshman Jennifer Cronan shined—before closing out its fall season with a sixth-place finish at ECACs.

While the young Crimson team performed admirably this season, this year’s experience should mean even bigger strides next year. Harvard loses only Kuchefski, who had a large impact on the team this year, as she returns to Amherst in the fall and will continue playing golf at the Division III level.

“We have a lot of positives coming out of this season and we’re getting closer to where we want to be,” Chiampa said. “Every season we get better and hopefully we can get to the point where we can consistently compete with the best in the Northeast.”

—Staff writer Jessica T. Lee can be reached at lee45@fas.harvard.edu.

W. GOLF

RECORD Fourth in Ivies

COACHES Warren Smith, Fred Schernecker

CAPTAIN Merry Chiampa

HIGHLIGHTS Harvard places ahead of league rival Dartmouth in the Ivy Championship after falling to the Big Green just two weeks earlier. Junior captain Chiampa and visiting student Kathryn Kuchefski consistently tally low scores, leading the young Crimson team.