LITCHFIELD PARK, Ariz. – As Abilene Christian’s Ryann Honea embarks on a spring season with lofty expectations, she started on a high note in tying for first place in the BGSU Women’s Intercollegiate at Wigwam Golf Resort on Wednesday. She guided the No. 88 Wildcats to a third-place finish at 57-over 909 in their first tournament of the semester.

ACU finished five strokes back of tournament champion Weber State, while UTEP came in second place in the 14-team field at 53-over 266. Western Athletic Conference members Utah Valley and Stephen F. Austin were in 10th and 13th place, respectively. ACU and UTEP entered the day tied for the lead at 38-over 606.

The nation’s 82nd-ranked women’s golfer, Honea carded a 5-over 218 for the tournament to tie with UTEP’s Nawel Ben Letaief, competing as an independent, at the top of the leaderboard. She entered Wednesday’s final round with sole possession of first place at 2-over 144, but a 3-over 74 showing coupled with Letaief’s even-par round knotted them up.

Honea got started on No. 1 and quickly bogeyed one hole later. She sandwiched birdies around a double bogey on No. 6, then rebounded from a bogey on No. 13 with a birdie on No. 14. The San Angelo, Texas native scored her second double bogey of the round on No. 15, but responded with shots on par over her final three holes.

Letaief got her day started with a trio of birdies on the par-71, 6,000-yard Blue course, but four bogeys in six holes pushed her to 1-over. A birdie on Letaief’s penultimate hole, No. 10, brought her back to par.

Marissa Loya logged the best round of a Wildcat golfer on Wednesday, wrapping up the tournament with a 2-over 74 showing. After recording a 7-over 78 in each of her first two rounds on Tuesday, she rose 12 spots to No. 15 on the leaderboard at 16-over 229.

ACU’s three remaining golfers each carded a 7-over 78 in the final round, as Sydney Williams dropped six spots to come in just behind Loya in 18th place at 17-over 230. Manon Guille fell 11 spots to No. 35 with a 20-over 233, and Jiyu Han wasn’t far behind at No. 38 and 21-over 234.

The Wildcats return to the course on March 3-4 as they host their first-ever tournament, the West Texas Classic at Abilene Country Club.