BLOOMFIELD, CONN. – The Cortland women's golf team won its fifth Northeast Women's Golf Conference (NWGC) Championship in six years and earned the program's third NCAA Division III championship team berth in the past four years with a nail-biting finish at the two-day conference championship, held Saturday and Sunday at the Wintonbury Hills Golf Course.
 
As the NWGC champion, Cortland has qualified for an NCAA automatic berth and will compete at the national championship tournament May 13-16 at the Kingsmill Resort & Spa in Williamsburg, Va.
 
The tournament was reduced from 36 holes to 27 after weather halted play on Saturday with some teams finished and others not. Only scores from the front nine were eventually counted from Saturday (Cortland and Suffolk were the only two schools to complete 18 holes that day), and the teams played 18 holes Sunday in windy conditions.
 
Cortland finished with a 27-hole score of 510, followed by Suffolk at 512. Cortland had a 166 to defending champion Suffolk's 169 on the first day, and Suffolk finished with a 343 to Cortland's 344 on Sunday. A total of 11 teams competed. Utica (187-377-564), Geneseo (189-393-582), Nazareth (180-406-586) and Keene State (192-395-587) rounded out the top six team finishers.
 
Freshman Gina Milazzo (Greenwood Lake/Warwick Valley) finished second out of 52 golfers. She recorded a two-over-par 37 on the front nine Saturday and carded an 82 on the par-70 layout Sunday for a final score of 119. Suffolk's Ella Torsleff was the tournament individual champion with a 117 (40-77). Senior Sophie Oristian (North Potomac, MD/Quince Orchard) tied for third with a 121 (39-82) and sophomore Pia Aguilar (Santiago, Chile/Colegio Highlands) tied for eighth place with a 133 (43-90).
 
By virtue of their finishes, Milazzo is the NWGC Rookie of the Year and is first team all-conference. Oristian is also first team all-conference and Aguilar is a second team all-conference honoree. The top five golfers in the standings are named to the first team and the sixth through 10th-place finishers are on the second team.
 
Junior Kara Dumas (Jefferson/Gilboa-Conesville) tied for 14th place with a 137 (47-90) and sophomore Mimi Rienzo (Stewartsville, NJ/Phillipsburg) placed 19th with a 140 (47-93) as all five Cortland golfers finished in the top 20.
 
Two weeks ago at Cortland's Martin/Wallace Invitational Suffolk finished one stroke ahead of Cortland in the final team standings, and the teams remained close during the entire NWGC Championship. Suffolk led by a stroke with a combined four holes left for the players still on the course. Cortland tied the match after the next completed hole and took the lead shortly thereafter.
 
Dumas, the first Cortland player to take the course, looked like she might be the fifth Red Dragon scorer and not count on the day, but she finished with a birdie and par and eventually ended up tied for Cortland's third spot in Sunday's scoring and helped the Red Dragons secure the title.
 
Dumas was honored on the NWGC Elite Academic Team, which consists of the top student-athlete from each participating institution that submitted a nominee for the league's Elite Academic Award. Dumas is a physical education major with a 3.86 overall GPA. Canton's Gwen Glennon won the Elite Academic Award.
 
In all, Cortland Women's Golf has now won seven league titles - five in the NWGC (fall of 2019 and spring of 2021, spring of 2022 and spring of 2023 in addition to this year), along with Empire 8 crowns in 2017 and 2018, before that league disbanded. (Cortland also won an ECAC title in the fall of 2015 before officially joining a conference)

  
NORTHEAST WOMEN'S GOLF CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP (April 26-27, 2025)
Wintonbury Hills Golf Course; Bloomfield, Conn.
(par 35 Saturday, par 70 Sunday)
(Saturday's round reverted to nine holes due to play being stopped due to weather)

FINAL TEAM SCORES:

Place, School                                  Day 1 - Day 2 - Total Score
1) Cortland                                               166-344-510
2) Suffolk                                                 169-343-512
3) Utica                                                    187-377-564
4) Geneseo                                              189-393-582
5) Nazareth                                              180-406-586
6) Keene State                                          192-395-587
7) Husson                                                210-391-601
8) St. John Fisher                                      204-434-638
9) Cobleskill                                             223-434-657
10) Keuka                                                 226-449-675
11) Westfield State                                    240-455-695
 
INDIVIDUAL SCORES (TOP 10)
(top 10 are all-conference; places 1-5 are first team, places 6-10 are second team)

Place, Name (School)                         Day 1 - Day 2 - Total
1) Ella Torsleff (Suffolk)                             40-77-117
2) Gina Milazzo (Cortland)                         37-82-119
T3) Sophie Oristian (Cortland)                   39-82-121
T3) Brooke Bugajewski (Suffolk)                 41-80-121
5) Bethan Wineburg (Nazareth)                 40-89-129
 
6) Krisna Mahendran (Suffolk)                   41-89-130
7) Kayla Ringler (Nazareth)                        43-88-131
T8) Pia Aguilar (Cortland)                          43-90-133
T8) Emma Dreher (Cobleskill)                    44-89-133
T10) Caitlyn Chabot (Husson)                    44-90-134
T10) Alaina Weaver (Utica)                        47-87-134
 
Other Cortland:
T14) Kara Dumas (Cortland)                       47-90-137
19) Mimi Rienzo (Cortland)                        47-93-140

(52 golfers competed)