For the 12th straight year, GoTerriers.com will once again count down the top 12 achievements of Boston University teams and student-athletes from the previous year. Check back each Tuesday and Friday as we reveal this year's Terrier Twelve.
Coming in at No. 4 in this year's Terrier 12 is the golf team claiming its second Patriot League title and a berth to an NCAA Regional.
The Terriers led wire-to-wire en route to their first conference championship since 2015 and their second team victory of the season. Freshman phenom
Hanako Kawasaki became the first golfer in Patriot League history to be named both Golfer of the Year and Rookie of the Year in the same season after she erased a two-shot deficit in the final round to claim the individual title.
BU dominated that final round, combining for a score of 293. The Terriers also led after each of the first two rounds and finished the tournament with a 54-hole total of 903 (304-306-293), four strokes clear of Navy (907) and 12 shots ahead of three-time defending champion and host Richmond. Head coach
Bruce Chalas was named Patriot League Coach of the Year for the second time after the triumph.
Kawasaki made three birdies in the final round, including a crucial one at the 17th hole to help the Terriers hang on to the win. Sophomore Katrina Doleckova joined Kawasaki on the All-Patriot League First Team after she matched her collegiate low 54-hole score of 227 (76-77-74) to tie for fourth. Juniors
Abby Parsons (76-75-79) and
Zhangcheng Guo (82-78-70) both earned Second Team All-Patriot League recognition after they tied for ninth with a score of 230. Guo was outstanding over the last 18 holes, firing a Patriot League Championship record two-under 70.
Senior
Megan Carter made the most of her final appearance at the Patriot League Championship, as she recorded a hole-in-one on the par-3, 162-yard ninth hole. That began a stretch of four holes in which she went four-under en route to a final-round 76.
The tremendous team effort ensured the Terriers a trip to an NCAA Regional for the second time in program history. BU traveled to Cle Elum, Washington, and finished 17th at the regional against some of the top teams in the country. Kawasaki made more history as she became the first Terrier to shoot below par at an NCAA Regional, carding an opening-round 71 (-1).
Kawasaki had a simply sensational debut season. She tied a program record with three individual victories, including two straight wins prior to the NCAA Regional. Kawasaki and the Terriers knew they had potential for a special season when they emerged victorious at the Yale Intercollegiate in the fall. In just her third collegiate tournament, Kawasaki fired a four-under 67 over her final 18 holes to best the previous low round of 68 (-4) that Emily Tillo carded on March 7, 2016. She matched Tillo's record for low score in relation to par and shattered the 54-hole record with a score of 211 (71-73-67), five shots clear of
Adela Cejnarova's 216 in October 2016.
As a team at Yale, BU set a new 54-hole record with a three-day score of 890 (303-300-287), highlighted by a record score of 287 in the final round. The score of 287 bested the single-day program record of 290 by three strokes, while the Terriers' total of 890 was six shots clear of their previous best of 896 set at the 2017 Harvard Invitational.
Kawasaki concluded the year with a program-record scoring average of 75.00, joining Guo and junior
Annie Sritragul as Terriers to average a score of 77.50 or lower in 2018-19. Sritragul, a transfer from Nebraska, shined in her first year at BU and earned Academic All-Patriot League honors. BU combined for 27 top-20 finishes, including five top-10 performances by Kawasaki and four top-10 efforts by Guo. All six Terriers that teed off at the Patriot League Championship posted at least three top-20 finishes.
BU will be a favorite to repeat as conference champion in 2020, as the Terriers return all but one player from the 2019 title-winning squad.
2018-19 Terrier Twelve
#5: Women's Ice Hockey Claims First Beanpot Since 1981
#6: Lightweight Rowing Wins Sprints and Finishes as IRA Runner-Up
#7: Student-Athlete Body Sets New Academic Marks
#8: Men's Lacrosse Rewrites Record Book En Route to Third Straight PL Semifinal
#9: Athletics Raises $1.36 Million on Another Record-Breaking Giving Day
#10: Women's Lacrosse's Conry Logs Historic Season
#11: Basketball and COM Partnership Reaches New Heights
#12: Women's Tennis Claims Two Major Awards, Helps Sheehan Reach Milestone
