There is plenty of excitement after the first day of the 2023 Big Sky Golf Championships as Eastern Washington women's golf is sitting at sixth on the leaderboard. Highlighting the day, Jaelin Ishikawa is currently tied for first after firing off a 69 (-3) to open the conference championships.

"Jaelin [Ishikawa] played outstanding today. She was steady all day and it was fun to watch her play confident and relaxed," head coach Brenda Howe said. "Both Kami [Twining] and Brooke [Mahler] posted some great scores for us as well today. It can be an intimidating feel as a freshman walking into your first conference tournament, but Brooke handled herself very well today. It's a really tight leaderboard, so we need to keep it going tomorrow."

Ishikawa recorded birdies on the 2nd, 3rd and 7th holes on the front nine, adding birdies on the 12th, 15th and 16th to position herself at the top of the field. 

At the top of the individual leaderboard, Ishikawa is tied with Sacramento State's Caitlin Maurice and Northern Arizona's Lizzie Neale. The Makawao, HI native is shooting for her third-straight top 10 finish at the Big Sky Championships.

Eastern posted a 298 total score (+10) in the first round, two strokes behind Idaho for fifth (296) and three behind Northern Arizona (295) who holds fourth. The Eagles are three strokes ahead of Montana in seventh (301). 

Kami Twining also started her second postseason tournament well, shooting an opening-round 73 (+1) and is currently tied for 13^th on the individual leaderboard.

In her first conference championship appearance, Brooke Mahler finished with a 76 (+4) and is tied for 30^th.

Sacramento State is on top of the team leaderboard with a 282 total score in round one. 

Up Next
The Eagles will tee off for the second round of the Big Sky Championships tomorrow morning (April 18), starting at 8:40 a.m. Pacific Time.