Bernat Tied for First, Cats in Eighth After Round One

HOCKLEY, Texas – Senior Carla Bernat produced her 14th round in the 60s this season, leading the 28th-ranked Kansas State women's golf team on Tuesday during the first round of the 2025 Big 12 Championship held at the par-71, 6,249-yard Houston Oak Golf Club.

Bernat is tied for first place at 2-under par 69 as the Wildcats tallied a first-round score of 11-over par 295 to reside in eighth place on the bunched up leaderboard. The Wildcats are only one back of the seventh position – currently held by No. 8 Arizona State – and two shots behind a fifth-place tie between No. 15 TCU and No. 31 UCF.

"We are a little bit disappointed with today's round. We got ourselves in a good position through nine holes, but we just were unable to keep the momentum going through the middle part of the back nine," head coach Stew Burke said. "We didn't seem to get the breaks that our playing partners did at the critical times. However, we played a lot of good golf, and that will be the focus this evening as we rest up and get ready for tomorrow. We are further back on the leaderboard than we would like, but we know we are capable of making a charge over the next two days."

Starting No. 10, Bernat birdied two of her first three holes, which included a tap-in birdie putt on No. 12 after hitting her approach shot to within a few feet of the hole. Her lone bogey of the day came on her 16th hole – the par-3 7th – but she quickly countered that with a birdie on the par-5 8th before closing her round out with a par.

In addition to her 14th round in the 60s this year, it was her 39th as a collegiate golfer, while she tallied her team-leading 21st under-par round of the season.

Another senior, Sophie Bert, is tied for 27th place at 3-over par 74 following an up-and-down round that saw her record five birdies, but she also had six bogeys and one double bogey. Junior Noa van Beek is one shot behind Bert and tied for 39th place.

Sophomore Alenka Navarro is tied for 49th place at 6-over par 77, one shot ahead of freshman Nanami Nakashima, who is tied for 49th place.

No. 19 Arizona and 29th-ranked Iowa State are tied atop the leaderboard following a first-round score of 1-over par 285. No. 26 Houston is three shots back and in third place, while No. 30 Oklahoma State is in fourth at 5-over par 289.

Bernat, who ranks 24th in the National Collegiate Golf Rankings, is joined atop the leaderboard with No. 61 Carolina Melgrati of Arizona and Maelynn Kim of Houston. That trio holds a one-shot lead over four players that posted a score of 1-under par 70 during the first round.

K-State begins the second round of the 2025 Big 12 Championship on Wednesday with tee times starting at 8:50 a.m., off No. 1, and the Wildcats will be paired with Arizona State and Cincinnati. Live results can be followed on SCOREBOARD powered by Clippd.

– k-statesports.com –

How to follow the Cats: For complete information on K-State Women's Golf, visit www.kstatesports.com and follow the team's social media channels on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Facebook.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Carla Bernat

Sophie Bert

Nanami Nakashima

Alenka Navarro

Noa van Beek

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