An eagle propelled an Eagle student-athlete to new heights as junior Lousiane Gauthier became the first Florida Gulf Coast University golfer to qualify for the NCAA Championship.
Gauthier placed fourth individually at the NCAA Women’s Golf Lubbock Regional held May 4-6 in Lubbock, Texas, while the FGCU women’s team finished ninth in its first-ever appearance at regionals. As the lowest-scoring individual not on one of the five advancing teams, Gauthier qualified for the national championship May 16-21 in Carlsbad, California.
“I’m not surprised at all,” said FGCU head coach Shannon Sykora. “She has been clutch all year.”
On the final day of regionals May 6, Gauthier sat in 14th place after a bogey on No. 17, her eighth hole of the day. Over the next four holes, however, she came on strong with birdies at Nos. 18 and 1, followed by an eagle on No. 2 to go four-under-par for the three hole stretch. Gauthier catapulted herself into fourth place, two clear of the next player that could take the individual spot from her. She would finish with steady golf, making par on six of the next seven holes. Her tap-in on No. 9 — her final hole of the day — gave her a 71 (-1) for the round and an even-par score for the tournament.
As a team, the Eagles had their best round of the event that day, shooting a team score of 285 to take 23 strokes off their round two score. The Eagles tied for the fifth-best round of the day with their score and moved up one spot on the leaderboard.
Leonie Wulfers had the best round of the day for FGCU, carrying a 70 (-2). Posie Farrelly joined Gauthier with a 71, with Amelie Alcantara wrapping up play with a 73 (+1). Islay Benoit wrapped up her freshman season with a 77 (+5) in the final round.
“The first couple of days, we struggled in the bad weather,” said Sykora. “I’m extremely proud of how they competed, and it was nice to shoot under par as a team.”
In April, the Eagles won the 2025 Atlantic Sun Conference Championship — their first — on four playoff holes. Gauthier captured the individual title with a three-round score of even-par to win by four strokes FGCU’s first-ever team or individual ASUN championship.
A native of Canelones, Uruguay, Gauthier was named to the ASUN All-Academic Team for women’s golf in April after a strong performance this year in the classroom and stellar play on the course. She earned a 3.678 GPA while majoring in software engineering. On the course, Gauthier has set an FGCU record for most tournament wins in a season.