Shintaro Ban of UNLV, a senior from San Jose, ran away with the individual title and led the Rebels their third consecutive victory in the Mountain West Conference Men’s Championship on the Olympic Course at Gold Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash.
Ban earned his fourth victory of the season and fifth of his career with a score of 68-67-65—200, 16-under-par, to win by nine strokes over Grant Booth of Nevada, who was second at 68-71-70—209, while Sean Yu of San Jose State shot 74-67-73—214, to tie for third with Galven Green of New Mexico, who wound up at 69-75-70—214.
“I love my teammates and coaches,” said Ban, who set Mountain West records for total score, score relative to par and margin of victory. “We are all family. We all do the same thing, we try to get better every day—just try to push each other and get the best out of ourselves.
“My ball placement was really good off the tee and on the green as well. Today was actually a better ball-striking day. I had a little more confidence in attacking some flags and overall put myself with a lot of birdie opportunities. I put them a lot closer than the past few days and got it done today. It’s a great feeling. This is my last conference championship ever (and) you have to make the best out of the last one.”
Brian Humphreys of Boise State totaled 74-72-69—215 to tie for fifth three players from Colorado State—AJ Ott of Colorado State, who recorded a score of 66-75-74—215, Max Oelfke, who finished at 76-68-71—215, and Jake Staiano, who came in at 71-72-72—215.
Alex Lee of Fresno State shot 71-76-69—216 to tie for ninth with Bulldog teammate Lane Pulliam, who finished at 70-73-73—216, and Sean Talmadge of San Jose State, who wound up at 68-73-75—216.
Blake Abercrombie led San Diego State at 69-77-73—219, finishing in a tie for 13th that included his Aztec teammate Trevor Norby, who totaled 69-75- 75—219.
UNLV claimed its fifth overall conference title with a score of 284-288- 284—856, 8-under, followed by Colorado State at 284-293-290—867, Nevada at 293-291-291—875 and Fresno State at 287-295-299—881.
Wyoming recorded a score of 289-293-300—882 to tie for fifth with New Mexico, which finished at 295-298-289—882, while Boise State was seventh at 296-296-291—883, followed by San Diego State at 284-303-297—884, San Jose State at 288-297-300—885, Air Force at 305-303-309, and Utah State at 304-309-309—922.
For complete results, visit http://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=15585.
