The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas won the 2018 NCAA Division III Women’s Golf National Championships on Friday at the El Campeon Golf Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida. It was the Athenas first national championship in program history, according to a news release from CMS athletics.

The Athenas and Williams Ephs finished the fourth round of the national championships tied in the team standings at 93-over par and went to a playoff to decide the 2018 champion.

CMS took a lead early in the playoff, but the Ephs stormed back and tied the match, forcing more golf.

With the rest of the team already done with their second playoff hole, Claremont McKenna’s Margaret Loncki stood over a 15-foot putt for par on the 18th green that would clinch the championship for the Athenas.

A miss would send CMS and Williams to a third playoff hole. Now playing her 74th hole of the week, Loncki calmly stepped up and nailed her putt to win the national championship.

Less than two hours earlier, Loncki stood on the very same green clinching the Individual Championship with a par on the 72nd hole. She finished the week 11-over par, three shots ahead of the second-best individual in the field.

The national championship is the fifth NCAA team title in CMS department history and second this year, joining the women’s volleyball team in 2017-18.

This is the first time in department history that CMS Athletics has claimed multiple team national championships in the same year.

CHS Boys Volleyball

The Pack made it all the way to the quarterfinal match in the CIF Division 3 Tournament, but lost to a very strong Downey High School, 3-1, at home on Saturday. Downey took the first two sets, 25-19 and 25-23, but Claremont came back winning the third, 25-22. The Vikings were just too good in the end and won the last set, 25-17.

Claremont defeated Righetti, 3-0, in the first round and Crossroads, 3-2, in the second.

The Pack and Damien shared a Hacienda League title with matching 6-2 records. Claremont was 17-10 overall.

Boys Tennis

Claremont lost to number-four seeded Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, 5-13, in the second round of the Division 1 CIF Team Championships on Friday at Peninsula. Four of the five Claremont wins came by the number-one singles and doubles players.

Senior Leyton Bohren, juniors Andrew Weisman and Jason Weisman, and sophomore Ben Stapp will compete in the CIF Individual Tournament beginning May 24, likely at the University of Redlands.

The Pack won the Palomares League, ending the season with an overall record of 15-5.

Baseball

Claremont’s turnaround second half of the regular season ended on a high note as the boys blanked Diamond Bar, 7-0, at Diamond Bar on Thursday.

Andrew Beauvais tossed a four hit, complete game shutout. Nathan Rodriguez, Jonah Paez and Rylan Opatkiewicz each collected two hits and scored two runs while Luke Santia drove in two of the Pack’s seven runs. Jake Holcroft continued to pace the Pack by drawing two walks, scoring a run, driving in a run, and collecting another hit, giving him a team leading 38 hits.

The win makes the Wolfpack eligible for the CIF playoffs for the first time in 5 years. They qualified as an at large team, but there were no at large spots in the Division 4 Tournament.

“We started the season at 2-9 but went 12-5 after a bad start,” Coach Ron La Chase said. “Winning the Santa Ana Elks Tournament started the turnaround. I am so proud of the boys for working so hard to even qualify for an at large bid.”

Claremont’s final record was 6-9 in league and 14-14 overall.

Track and Field

Five Claremont athletes have qualified for the CIF Finals this Saturday at El Camino College in Torrance.

Sydney Hwang and AJ Reyes will be in the 3200-meter race, while Angie Gushue and Ryan Cowgill will compete in the 1600-meter event.

Coming off of her second place finish last week, Abby Holt will compete in the high jump.

Swimming

This coming weekend Sophie Jackson will compete in the 100-yard butterfly at the California State CIF meet in Clovis.

Webb Schools

The Webb Schools’ junior Rylie Brick won the 100-yard breaststroke on Thursday during the CIF Southern Section Division 3 Finals at the Riverside Aquatics Complex.

Her winning time of 1:04.96 seconds, narrowly beat Kennedy’s Tyryn Empremsilapa, who was second at 1:05.16.

Brick also finished third in the 200-yard individual medley at 2:09.41.

—Steven Felschundneff

steven@claremont-courier.com