Padilla finishes fourth at SAC Championship, breaks single-season mark

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Tusculum junior Reagan Padilla finished fourth at the 2025 South Atlantic Conference Women’s Golf Championship, which was held this week at The Preserve at Verdae.

The Pioneers posted a team score of 624 including Tuesday’s final round 313 on the par-72, 5,808-yard layout. The championship was shortened to 36 holes due to Monday’s second round being rained out.

Wingate, the No. 3 ranked team in NCAA Division II, rallied from a seven-shot deficit and finished with a one-over par total 577 to win the SAC Championship by three shots over top-ranked Anderson (580).

Lincoln Memorial was third with 586, followed by Lenoir-Rhyne (602), Catawba (608), Limestone (609), Carson-Newman (617), Tusculum (624), Coker (632), Newberry (667), Mars Hill (678) and UVA Wise (699).

Padilla finishes in the top-five of the SAC Championship for a second straight season, earning SAC All-Tournament laurels in back-to-back campaigns. She matched her career-low with a one-under par 71 to finish with a level total of 144. Her 144 is one shot off the career-best 143 she carded in the second and third rounds of last year’s SAC Championship.

Padilla scored three straight pars to open her round before a bogey five on No. 4. She bounced back quickly chipping in for an eagle on the fifth hole and closed out her outward nine with a one-under par 35. She recorded four consecutive pars to start the back nine before a birdie on No. 14 to get to two-under for the final round. She shot one-over par for the final four holes with the only hiccup coming with a bogey on No. 16.

Wingate’s Amely Bochaton claimed the individual medal as she finished at seven-under par (71-66=137) including Tuesday’s 66 (-6). Bochaton won by two shots over Anderson’s Kennedy McGaha (69-70=139, -5) and four shots over Zoey Iglesias of Anderson (72-69=141, -3). Padilla was fourth and Wingate’s Noelia Adkins shot 68-77=145 to round out the top-five.

Tusculum’s Delfin Filiz posted a four-shot improvement on Sunday’s 81 with a five-over par 77. She finished with 158 to place 30^th. Emilie Bergh-Jacobsen tied for 34^th place with 78-82=160 which is her lowest 36-hole total of her career.

TU freshman Maylei Hildenbrand finished with 79-83=162 to tie for 39^th place while Annabelle Mozingo rounded out the Pioneer scoring with 81-83=164 (46^th).

Padilla’s strong finish to the year helped the TU junior break the program single-season record for scoring average at 75.25. It breaks the season previous season record 75.40 she established last year.

In her 28 career events, Padilla has finished in the top-five on 11 occasions which is the fourth-most in school history. This week’s performance was also her 17^th career top-10 finish tying her for fourth with former All-SAC performer Jillian Corum (2009-2013). She also finishes in the top-20 for a 20^th consecutive tournament and 22^nd of her career (T6th in TU history). She lowers her career scoring average to 76.40, which is the second-lowest by a Pioneer with only Jennifer Keim’s (2019-2021) 75.93 average being better.

Bergh-Jacobsen concludes her TU career with an 83.76 scoring average which is the 17^th-lowest in program history.

Hildenbrand wraps up her rookie campaign with a 77.65 scoring average which is the third-lowest ever by a Tusculum freshman.

2025 SAC Women’s Golf Championship

Tusculum Individual Scores