T-Birds sweep Wine Valley Invitational to open new season

WALLA WALLA, Wash. – With only one starter from last year's NAIA Championships returning to each roster, two revamped UBC Thunderbirds golf squads showed that they are both still the teams to beat in the Cascade Collegiate Conference by sweeping the Wine Valley Invitational to kick off the new campaign.

Second-year Keira Hou (143, -1) led the T-Birds women (594, +18) to a 12-stroke victory over Oregon Tech (606, +30), while winning the individual title by three strokes over Reece Garey (146, +2) of College of Idaho. Hou, who also posted the only sub-70 round of the event on the women's side with a first round 69 (-3), saw her advantage slowly disappear during round two, before a strong finish allowed her to pull away with the victory.

The T-Birds women built an eight-stroke lead in round one over Lewis-Clark State (611, +35) before expanding that into the 12-stroke victory by firing the only two sub-300 team rounds at the event, following a 295 (+7) on Monday with a 299 (+11) in the second and final 18 on Tuesday.

The team's lone senior, Jessica Ng (147, +3) tied for third place, while first-year Katherine Hao and Sienna Harder also cracked the top 10 on the individual leaderboard, tying for seventh with matching scores of 152 (+8).



UBC's men had a much more eventful ride to their win. The T-Birds started slowly, sitting 10 strokes off the lead with a 287 (-1) in the first round, before pulling to within three shots of the lead with a 278 (-10) in round two, though they remained in third place.

In Tuesday's final round, the 'Birds showed their championship caliber with a tournament-best team total of 274 (-14) to finish with a collective score of -25 (839) and win the event by nine strokes, also over Oregon Tech (848, -16).

Proving the depth of the revamped roster, all six 'Birds men finished in the top-10 of the event. The top T-Bird was first-year Hunter Auramenko (204, -10) who was entered as an individual, meaning his fantastic showing at his first-ever collegiate tournament did not even count toward the team total.

Close behind him was first-year Manpreet Lalh (209, -7) in fifth, Aneesh Kaura (210, -6) in sixth, Jake Houston (212, -4) in seventh, followed by first-year Leighton Wright and Forrest Van Alstine (214, -2) tying for ninth.



With the guidance and support of assistant coaches Jeff Buder and Keir Smith, the T-Birds extended their undefeated streak at Cascade Collegiate Conference tournaments, which stretches back to the spring of 2022.

The 'Birds are now in for a tougher test at the Canadian Collegiate Invitational, an NCAA Division I event hosted by Canadian coaches at NCAA DI schools and supported by Golf Canada. UBC gained entry as the lone Canadian school on either side of the tournament by sweeping the Golf Canada Canadian University/College Championships over the summer.

UBC's men play first, with the second iteration of their side of the CCI returning to Öviinbyrd Golf Club in Muskoka, Ontario, September 15-16.

The T-Birds women will take part in the inaugural women's CCI at Beacon Hill Golf Club in Aurora, Ontario, September 22-23.