Story and photo by Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director

Haruka Koda checked in with a round of 69 to claim medalist honors as College of the Canyons picked up the win at its home conference tourney played at Sand Canyon Country Club on Monday.

COC turned in a four-player score of 318 on warm but, at times, blustery day on the links. That score represented the second-highest total recorded by the Cougars at a conference event this season, but was still good enough to win the event by 31 strokes.

Santa Barbara City College (349) was second followed by a tight race for third with Citrus (430) narrowly ahead of fourth place Antelope Valley (433) and Bakersfield (479) in fifth. Moorpark entered just one player in the event and did not qualify for the team competition.

The field of six schools played the country club’s nine-hole (par 35) Mountain Course twice through, once from the yellow tees and then again from the whites.

Koda’s one-under round of 69 returned the sophomore back to medalist status, after a brief two-week hiatus. Koda began the season by taking the top individual spot in four of the first five WSC tourneys, then finished third overall at back-to-back events. She also continues to lead the season-long WSC individual standings.

Jessie Lin, who was the medalist a week ago at the WSC Moorpark tourney, finished Monday’s event in second place with a round of 78. Paige Heuer was fourth with a score of 80.

Koda, Lin and Heuer, who each earned All-WSC honors a season ago, turned in the top scores on a day in which Canyons saw all six players finish in the top-11 spots.

Fredeliza Lieberman was the fourth to score for the Cougars with a round of 91, good for sixth overall in the field of 26. Shabana Poswal (92) tied for seventh overall but had her score scratched from the Canyons total. Likewise, for Delaney Young who tied for 11th after ending her day at 98.

The victory was the 17th straight Western State Conference (WSC) event won by Canyons, which remained a perfect 40-0 this season. SBCC continues to hold the WSC’s second place spot at 32-8.

The Cougars will round out the conference season at the two-day WSC Finals event being hosted by Moorpark College at Camarillo Springs Golf Course on Oct. 27-28.

COC will be gunning for the program’s second straight conference title — and 10th overall — when things get underway at noon on Sunday. Canyons is also the defending California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) state champions.

WSC No. 8 — Oct. 21, 2019 — Final Team Scores
1. Canyons (318) 2. SBCC (349) 3. Citrus (430) 4. Antelope Valley (433) 5. Bakersfield (479) 6. Moorpark (NS)

WSC No. 8 — Oct. 21, 2019 — Canyons Individual Scores
Haruka Koda (69-medalist); Jessie Lin (78-tie second place); Paige Heuer (80-fourth place); Fredeliza Lieberman (91-sixth place); Shabana Poswal (92-tie seventh place); Delaney Young (98-tie eleventh place).

Stay up to date on all this season’s action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.