Hundreds of students, teammates and friends lit candles in honor of Celia Barquin Arozamena.
Hundreds gathered on the Iowa State University campus last night to remember the life of a celebrated student athlete.
Celia Barquin Arozamena was murdered Monday while playing golf on a course in Ames. Anna Yurrick is a missionary with St. Thomas Aquinas Church. She knew Barquin through their shared Catholic faith. “Yes, she was an amazing golfer. Yes, she was a terrific engineering student. Yes, she even died a horrific death. But this is not actually who she was. Celia was a woman of greatness-great faith, great joy, great love,” Yurrick says.
Barquin Arozamena was from Spain and came to Iowa Sate to play golf and ended up as the 2018 Big 12 Conference Medalist. Her boyfriend, Carlos Negrin Bolaños, shared their story. And made a request. “On your way home, please call your mother, it sounds something to be so simple, but she has asked me, if you take something from this, call mom, tell her you love her. It’s so easy. It doesn’t take a minute, I promise you, she’ll be forever grateful,” Negrin says.
Barquin’s coach, teammates and others all offered tributes to a woman they say worked hard, found a second home and family in Ames, and will be dearly missed. Barquin Arozamena was to be honored at the Iowa State football game on Saturday as the school’s female athlete of the year. That ceremony will now be a tribute to her life.
(Thanks to Amy Mayer, Iowa Public Radio/Photo courtesy of ISU News Service)