Palomar College's Busby Captures Women's Golf Title
Palomar College sophomore women’s golfer Sadye Busby was named as this year’s Orange Empire Conference Player of the Year after leading the Comets to the conference title with a 74-3 record in their first season in the new conference.
San Clemente, CA – Palomar College sophomore women's golfer Sadye Busby was named as this year's Orange Empire Conference Player of the Year after leading the Comets to the conference title with a 74-3 record in their first season in the new conference.
Busby was the event medalist in four of the nine conference events played this season and shared the event medalist honors with Fullerton's Kacy Kaichi during the 36-hole conference championship played at the San Clemente Municipal Golf Course this week. Both players posted 13-over-par scores of 159 on the par 73 layout. Busby's 74.1 stroke average in conference matches was the best by 3.5 strokes.
Palomar, College of the Desert, Mt. San Jacinto, and Mt. San Antonio colleges joined up with the four teams in the Orange Empire Conference this season after the Foothill Conference was left with not enough teams to compete. The addition doubled the size of the Orange Empire Conference and gives the conference several strong teams which will vie for a state tournament berth when they compete at the Southern California regional championship this Sunday and Monday at the Alisal Ranch golf course in Solvang.
Busby was joined on the first-team all-conference list by teammate Vanessa Honnes while Kaichi was joined on the all-conference list by Fullerton teammate Nea Bennett. Saddleback is represented by Makenzie Fahr, Rina Tomihari and McKenna Pautsch while Irvine Valley saw Leleaga Meredith and Cindy Dang make the list. Mt. San Jacinto has three players on the first team, including Iris Chung, Alice Hiluta, and Cheyenne Ackerman, while College of the Desert was represented by Samantha Stewart.
Fullerton, Desert, and Cuyamaca each had three players make second-team all-conference. Fullerton was represented by Tiffany Kohyama, Paulina Dejamco, and Shana Siaki while Brooke Raney, Morgan Murphy, and Chantelle McCarthy made the list for Desert. Cuyamaca's Jessica Diaz, Lark Herrick, and Christie Pasternick are on the second-team list. Irvine Valley's Nayoung Kim, Palomar's Jessica Campbell, and Saddleback's Mona Medina also made second-team.
Fullerton head coach Debi Woelke was selected as the Orange Empire Conference's Coach of the Year.