TULSA, Okla. – The Arkansas Tech women's golf team completed their wire-to-wire victory at the 2026 Great American Conference Championship Tournament on Wednesday, cruising to the program's seventh GAC title and doing so by a 30-stroke margin.
FINAL ROUND TEAM RESULTS | FINAL ROUND INDIVIDUAL RESULTS | FINAL ROUND STATS
The 30-stroke margin of victory for the Golden Suns is the third-largest in GAC history. The record is 50 strokes – done twice – but first by Tech at the 2015 GAC Championship.
This year's championship is the first overall for the Golden Suns since 2021 and the first out-right title since 2019. In 2021, Tech tied with Henderson State and then fell in the playoff, technically finishing runner-up. This year, the thought of a playoff to determine the team champion was absurd to write as it was for Jim Mora Sr., head coach of the Indianapolis Colts in 2001, to famously say, "Playoffs?!"
It was equally as absurd to think anyone would run down and keep recently-named GAC Player of the Year,
Ellen Spigner from winning the individual title. After going under-par on Tuesday to take the individual lead by four strokes, Spigner went on to best the field by six strokes as she finished with a tournament score of +1 (214).
The win at the GAC Championship adds Spigner to a list of five other former Golden Suns to win the tournament as she is the first to do so since 2021. It also makes her the fifth golfer in GAC history to win the conference tournament the same year being named the league POY.
Furthermore, it is her fourth individual victory of the season and her fifth career. She is now tied with Rebecka Surtevall for the most wins in a season and is tied for second all-time at Tech with Peerada Piddon for career wins.
In addition to Spigner's stellar tournament, the Golden Suns got tremendous showings from everyone in their lineup throughout and ended with two others in the top-five as
Jessie Norman (3
rd) and
Jaylee Castro (5
th) garnered All-Tournament Team honors.
Norman's ascension to a third-place finish began on Tuesday when she improved by 10 strokes from her opening round score and shot a one-under (70). She followed that up with a one-over (72) on Wednesday as she birdied the final two holes. The third-place finish is the highest of the season for the freshman from Southlake, Texas.
Castro played her way into All-Tournament team honors on Wednesday as she had her best round at one-over (72). At the conclusion of play on Tuesday, Castro was tied for 10
th on the individual leaderboard.
With the win, the Golden Suns earn the GAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Central Region Championship, but real talk, they were making the regional regardless as they were the No. 1-ranked team in the Central Region in the final NCAA Regional Rankings that dropped on April 10 (
https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/golf-women/d2/regional-rankings).
The "official" announcement of this year's field will be made Sunday, April 26 and the tournament will take place from Monday, May, 4 through Wednesday, May 6 at the St. Joseph Country Club, St. Joseph, Missouri.
