McCleary started the 2011-12 season by winning the Circling Raven Collegiate Invitational, hosted by WCC school Gonzaga Sept. 12-13 in Worley, Idaho. It was a wire-to-wire victory for McCleary, as she shot back-to-back rounds of two-under-par 70 on the first day, two of only three rounds under par during the entire day, to take a five-stroke lead. She finished the tournament at even-par 216 and maintained the five-stroke advantage in winning medalist honors.
On Sept. 26-27, McCleary finished in a tie for fourth place at the Rose City Collegiate, hosted by Portland State in Aurora, Ore. She started the tournament with an even-par 72 and followed that with a round of three-over-par 75 to end the first day in second place. A 77 in the third round led to a cumulative score of 224 (+8) and a tie for fourth place. Caitlin led the field with 39 pars, was tied for second in par-three scoring (-1), and tied for third in par-four scoring (+5).
After her victory at Gonzaga, McCleary was ranked 15th in the Golfweek/Sagarin rankings, and she was still in the top 100 in the country after her performance at the Rose City Collegiate. The rankings have not been updated since Sunday, so her victory earlier this week at the Cal Poly Firestone Grill Invitational has not yet been factored into the ranking system.
"She is such a competitor that, even with a nine-stroke advantage (at the Cal Poly tournament), she was not satisfied with her performance because she shot three-over-par in the final round," head coach Don Rasmussen said. "She bases her level of success on her own standards, not by anybody else's expectations."
The Seattle University women's golf team is an affiliate member of the West Coast Conference, joining the league last year and finishing fifth at the 2011 WCC Women's Golf Championships. The team will compete at the 2012 WCC Women's Golf Championships April 16-18, 2012, at the San Juan Oaks Golf Club in Hollister, Calif., before joining the Western Athletic Conference July 1, 2012.
McCleary and the Redhawk women's golf team head to Las Cruces, N.M., for the Price's "Give 'Em Five" Invitational, hosted by New Mexico State at the NMSU Golf Course next Monday through Wednesday, Oct. 10-12.