WGCA Honors Coach and Players; Three Named All-America
(CORAL SPRINGS, Fla.) – For the second straight season, three members of the Carnegie Mellon University women's golf team earned All-America honors from the Women's Golf Coaches Association (WGCA) with two others earning regional recognition along with head coach Dan Rodgers who was named the Division III Golf Pride Great Lakes Region Coach of the Year.
Sophomore Alexis Sudjianto (Charlotte, N.C./Charlotte Latin School) earned her second All-America First Team award while freshman Denise Pan (Houston, Texas/St. John's School) was honored as a second-team All-American. Sophomore Michelle Cao (Johns Creek, Ga./Northview) was one of six to be named to the honorable mention team.
Joining Sudjianto, Pan, and Cao as regional selections are senior Charlotte Simpson (Towson, Md./Bryn Mawr School) and junior Nadia Susanto (Irvine, Calif./Arnold O. Beckman). Both Simpson and Susanto earn all-region distinction for the third time in their careers.
The runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships was the highest national finish for any team sport in school history. The 2021 season saw two new team school records set. The Tartans recorded the lowest 18-hole score with a 285 at the Montgomery Country Club Women's Intercollegiate played at the Montgomery Country Club and then set the school record for the lowest 36-hole tournament score with a 597 at the same event.
The Tartans were led by Sudjianto for the second season, as she averaged a 76.9 in 12 rounds and placed second at the NCAA Championships. The sophomore set three school records this season, the 18-hole record with a five-under par 67 in the second round of the Montgomery Country Club Women's Intercollegiate, 36-hole record with a 146 at the same event and then the 72-hole record with a 305 at the NCAA Championships. Sudjianto also recorded four top-ten finishes in four events played.
Pan finished second on the team with an average of 77.3 in 12 rounds of play. She also ended the NCAA Championships tied for 12th with a 312 score which tied the third lowest 72-hole tournament score in program history. She recorded three top-ten finishes and tied Sudjianto for the lowest 18-hole school record score of five-under par 67 in the second round of the Montgomery Country Club Women's Intercollegiate. That same tournament Pan recorded the second lowest 36-hole tournament score of 147 in school history with a 147 and placed eighth.
Cao finished third on the team with an average of 77.8 in nine rounds of play and placed 11th at the NCAA Championships with a 72-hole score of 311. She recorded two top-ten finishes this season and carded a career-best round of two-over par 74 during the final round of the Montgomery Country Club Women's Intercollegiate were she placed ninth. Her other top-ten finish came at the 2021 Golfweek DIII Spring Invitational were she tied Simpson for 10th with a 239.
Simpson and Susanto tied with an 80.1 average. Simpson played in all 12 rounds for the Tartans while Susanto competed in seven. Simpson's highest finish came when she tied for 10th at the 2021 Golfweek DIII Spring Invitational with a 54-hole score of 239. On three occasions, the senior carded a season-best round of 77. Susanto fired her season-best rounds of 76 during the second and third rounds of the NCAA Championships. She ended the championships tied for 12th with a 312, tying for the third lowest 72-hole tournament score in program history.