SMITHVILLE, Mo. - Concordia-St. Paul sophomore Piper Hill turned in a +13 finish in the three-round NSIC Championships, tying for third among 60 competitors, earning a spot on the NSIC All-Tournament Team.

The Golden Bears finished fifth out of 12, turning in back-to-back rounds of 330 in rounds one and two before trimming 16 shots off their score in the final round on Sunday, gaining 10 strokes on third place Minnesota State and 12 strokes on second place Winona State. CSP's 314 was the second-ranked score of the third round.

CSP finished at 974, 21 strokes behind fourth-place Wayne State. Augustana (+46) won the tournament at 910.

Hill, a sophomore, fired three consistent rounds of 76-77-76 to finish at 229, tied with Molly Stevens of Augustana for third place to secure a spot on the NSIC All-Tournament Team. Hill and Stevens came in eight strokes shy of NSIC individual champion Carly Moon of Winona State (+5) and six shots shy of second place Lauren Tims of Augustana (+7).

Hill's 229 is a 20-stroke improvement on her 54-hole career low as she claimed her third top-5 finish of the season while lowering her season average to 79.21, the 12th-ranked season average in the Northern Sun.

Hill was strong across the board at the NSIC Championships, ranking in the top-11 on par 3s (t-3rd, +2), par 4s (t-3rd, +8) and par 5s (t-11th, +3) while producing an NSIC Championships-best 36 pars and tying for ninth in the tournament with four birdies.

In the final round, Hill opened with pars on 10 of the first 11 holes and 14-of-16 before finishing +4.

Her 76 in round three was matched by teammate Darby Barstad, who improved each round during championship play (86-84-76) including an 8-shot gain in round three, shooting up 11 spots on the individual leaderboard to a tie for 23rd with teammate Anna Tollette.

Barstad opened with a birdie on 12 before producing par on 10 of the next 13 holes. She closed with a pair of pars and didn't shoot worse than a bogey during the round. Her tournament included 29 pars and a pair of birdies.

Tollette played consistent golf during her final tournament as a Golden Bear, putting together three rounds separated by one stroke each (81-83-82). Her final round included 11 pars as she was second on the team with 31 pars among the 54 holes at the conference championships. 

Barstad and Tollette each secured new career-low 54-hole tournament scores, as well.

Rebecca DeLong led the team with five birdies at the conference championships with two coming in the final round as she shot her best score of the event and improved each day, as well (87-86-80).

The Golden Bears were rounded out at the championships by Sage Mulder, who followed up her strongest round (94) on Saturday with her second-best round (97) on Sunday as 10 of her 18 holes were par or bogey finishes.

While the Golden Bears will await NCAA regional bids for the team and individuals, the regular season comes to a close with Piper Hill ranked fourth in program history with an 80.39 career average while producing the sixth-best season average (79.21) in program history, just decimal points behind older sister Sophie's 2017-18 season, also at 79.2 (79.18).

Anna Tollette's career, which has likely come to a close, includes the ninth-best average in program history, playing 82.41 golf in 74 career rounds. She has two of the program's top-25 best single season scoring averages, ranking 24th this year at 81.6 after her junior year ranked 19th at 81.0.

The 2023-24 Golden Bears combined to produce the program's fifth-lowest team average at 326.5 while competing in 19 team rounds, finishing ahead of multiple teams who qualified for the NCAA Central Region Championships as well as the last Golden Bear team to qualify for the NCAA Division II Championships in 2012-13 (331.7).
 

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NSIC ALL-TOURNAMENT HISTORY:
2023-24: Piper Hill (t-3rd)
2022-23: Isabella Dory (1st)
2020-21: Amy Burnham (t-5th)
2018-19: Erika Olson (t-5th)
2017-18: Sophie Hill (t-2nd)
2016-17: Savannah Stone (t-3rd)
2015-16: Kari Opatz (t-2nd) & Savannah Stone (t-4th)
2014-15: Rachel Gray (3rd) & Kari Opatz (5th)
*2011-12: Laura Petterson (t-4th)
*2009-10: Laura Petterson (3rd) & Taylor Auman (t-4th)
^2008-09: Molly Noser, Jacquelyn Hauser, Carley Paulseth
^2007-08: Jacquelyn Hauser, 1st Team; Carley Paulseth & Molly Noser, 2nd Team
^2006-07: Kelly Godwin, 1st Team; Amanda Bearson, 2nd Team
^2004-05: Jennie Eyberg
^2003-04: Jennie Eyberg

* - NSIC Record Book does not list any All-Tournament members, for these seasons we have listed the top-5 finishers
^ - All-NSIC determined by All-Tournament selections