Ole Miss Daily: Women's golf signs transfer Justine Fournand

Ole Miss women’s golf has added South Carolina transfer Justine Fournand to its 2023-24 roster, head coach Kory Henkes announced Friday.

In her collegiate career, the Erstein, France, native has played in 35 total tournaments, compiling a career 73.54 stroke average. She has also logged nine top-5 finishes over the last four seasons.

“We are so excited for Justine to join us. She brings a wealth of experience on the national and international level that will help elevate our team,” Henkes said. “The fire and enthusiasm she brings is contagious in a group setting. Justine will be an immediate impact player for us next season and we look forward to her joining us on campus this fall.”

During the 2022-23 season, Fournand helped South Carolina finish in the top five in 12 of their 13 tournaments, including five second place finishes and a fourth place finish in stroke play at the NCAA Championships. Individually, she tallied a 73.79 stroke average with four scores in the 60s. Fournand’s best finish this previous season was third place at the Landfall Tradition.

During her junior season, Fournand was a huge contributor to the Gamecocks winning a program record five tournaments. She started all 11 stroke play events, placed top-5 once and top-20 four times. She logged a scoring average of 74.76 and shot par or better eight times in 33 rounds played.

Prior to South Carolina, Fournand starred at FAU where put her name in the program record books. In just two seasons, she won four times which tied the second most career wins in school history. Her 71.67 season scoring average her sophomore year was the lowest in program history. She became just the second player in FAU women’s golf to earn a spot in NCAA Regionals that same season. Finally, her third place finish in the C-USA Championship was the best finish in program history.

Fournand earned C-USA Golfer of the Year and First Team All-C-USA in 2021. It marked the third FAU women’s golfer to receive golfer of the year. After an impressive freshman season she earned C-USA Freshman of the Year.

TWO OLE MISS GOLFERS EARN WGCA ALL-AMERICAN HONORS

Two Ole Miss women golfers received Women’s Golf Coaches Association All-American honors, the WGCA announced on Friday. Andrea Lignell and Chiara Tamburlini earned the award for their excellent 2022-23 seasons.

Lignell becomes the third straight and all-time to receive First Team All-American status. Tamburlini and former Rebel Julia Johnson took home the honor the past two seasons. It also marks the Gothenburg, Sweden native’s first All-American accolade of her career.

Lignell is coming off a tie for 14th place at the NCAA Championships, shooting three-under par through four rounds. It was the third highest individual finish and lowest score at NCAAs in program history. She currently ranks No. 9 and No. 10 in the nation according to Goflweek and Golfstat.

The senior stamped her name in a couple of places in the Ole Miss golf record books. Ending the year with a team-best stroke average of 71.63, which is the fourth lowest in a season since the 2003-2004 campaign. Lignell tied Johnson the lowest 54-hole score in program history of 203 at Battle at Beach and the most top-five finishes in a season with 6. Lignell has also set a new program-best mark in most rounds in the 60s in a single season (10), while also shooting par-or-better in 16 of her rounds this season, ranking second all-time. Lignell made history for the Rebels at the 2023 Augusta National Women’s Amateur, not only being the first ever Rebel to make the day three cut at the prestigious event but also finishing third overall with a three-day score of 210 (-6) in Augusta.

Tamburlini received Second Team All-American honors, her second straight All-America accolade. She holds a season stroke average of 72.77 in 2022-23, marking a personal-best across her four seasons playing for Ole Miss. The St. Gallen, Switzerland native has logged a total of 13 rounds of par-or-better golf this season, including four rounds in the 60s this year. This officially ranks the senior second all-time in career rounds of par-or-better golf in Ole Miss history, tallying 37 over her four-year career. Tamburlini also garnered Second-Team All-SEC honors for the second year in a row. The senior ends her final season, recorded two top 5 finishes and six top 10 finishes.

TRACK & FIELD SCORES TWO MORE NCAA BERTHS

Ole Miss women’s track & field secured two national tickets in the throws and advanced four through to quarterfinals on the track at the second day of the 2023 NCAA East Region Preliminary Round on Thursday.

One day after men’s freshman Tarik Robinson-O’Hagan snagged two NCAA berths on his own, the Rebel women responded with two tickets to Austin on Thursday courtesy of All-American seniors Jasmine Mitchell (shot put) and Shey Taiwo (hammer).

Taiwo opened the day with her national qualifying performance in the hammer, finishing fifth at 65.33m/214-04 to notch her second career NCAA Outdoor berth. Taiwo was the NCAA runner-up in the hammer her last time at the outdoor national meet in 2021, and she now gives Ole Miss a women’s hammer qualifier for the fifth time in its last six opportunities since 2017.

Mitchell, meanwhile, pulled out some last-minute heroics to book her passage to Texas in the shot put later in the evening. Falling well outside the top-12 qualifying spots heading into her third and final attempt, Mitchell uncorked an outdoor PR of 16.97m/55-08.25 to move up to seventh and record her second straight NCAA Outdoor ticket in the shot put.

This is Mitchell’s eighth-career national qualifying berth across the indoor and outdoor seasons, and she’ll be looking to add on to her five career First or Second-Team All-America honors and 19 career NCAA points. The regional meet has been good to Mitchell in the shot put the last two years, as her previous outdoor PR of 16.95m/55-07.50 came from the East Regional last season, where she qualified for nationals out of the first flight.

On the track, Ole Miss advanced four women through to quarterfinals – highlighted by yet another show-stopping set of performances from senior sprinter McKenzie Long.

Long took care of business earlier in the night with a 100-meter dash auto-qualifying performance of 11.07 (+1.2), but it was her blistering 200-meter dash to end the night that turned heads and stunned even Long when she crossed the line.

Long clocked the top qualifying time by a wide three-tenths margin at a windy 22.13 (+2.9), which not only advances her to Saturday’s quarterfinal, but it breaks her own Ole Miss record and puts her No. 5 on the world all-conditions list for 2023. It also makes her the No. 10 performer in collegiate history among all-conditions.

This is just the latest in a long string of incredible accomplishments for Long, who this season alone has broken five Ole Miss records, won three SEC medals and earned two First-Team All-America honors while establishing herself as one of the best sprinters in school history.

The 200-meter dash proved lucrative for the Rebel women, as Long won’t be alone in Saturday’s quarterfinal after a time qualifying performance from senior Jayda Eckford. Her fifth heat time of 23.02 (+3.2) is an all-conditions season-best, and it stood up to scrutiny when all was said and done as one of the six time qualifiers admitted to the next round.

Advancing first, though, was senior Jaiden Paris in the 100-meter hurdles earlier in the evening. Paris earned an AQ bid to Saturday’s quarterfinal after finishing third in her heat and 22nd overall at 13.29 (+2.0). Paris has set the Ole Miss hurdles record several times this outdoor season, with her best at 13.11 (+0.9).