RJ Manke of Pepperdine beat Riles Elmes of Loyola Marymount in a playoff for the individual title and the Waves claimed their 20th West Coast Conference Men’s Championship at The Reserve at Spanos Park www.reserveatspanospark.com in Stockton.
Pepperdine, which was 15 strokes back in seventh place after the first round, posted a winning score of 289-278-284—851, 13-under-par, while San Francisco was second at 274-291-289—854, followed by St. Mary’s at 283-293-284—860, Brigham Young at 278-295-288—861, and Santa Clara at 287-295-283—865.
“It feels great,” Pepperdine Coach Michael Beard said after the Waves won for the third time this season. “After that first round, we were all disappointed. We said, ‘We’ve just got to give ourselves a chance.’
“We shot 10-under that second day and that gave us hope. It’s awesome. Our guys are so competitive.”
Loyola Marymount was sixth at 285-296-285—866, followed by Pacific at 296-286-288—870, Gonzaga at 286-296-297—879 and San Diego at 301-304-296—901.
Manke, a Pepperdine sophomore from Lakewood, Wash., who sank a five-foot birdie putt on the first extra hole for his second victory of the season, made a birdie on the 16th hole of the final round to tie for the lead at 69-72-69—210, 6-under.
Elmes finished at 71-70-69—210.
Christoffer Palsson of San Francisco shot 67-74-71—212 to tie for third with Chris Mogg of Gonzaga, who totaled 71-67-74—212 and Tim Widing of San Francisco, who finished at 71-69-72—212.
Joshua McCarthy of Pepperdine carded a score of 70-66-77—213 to tie for sixth with Carson Lundell of Brigham Young, who wound up at 72-73-68—213.
Ethan Ashbrook of St. Mary’s shot 72-74-68—214 to tie for eighth with Austin Fox of Pacific, who finished at 72-73-69—214; Joe Highsmith of Pepperdine, who wound up at73-71-70—214, Ethan Farnam of St. Mary’s, who totaled 71-72-71—214, and Peter Kuest of Brigham Young, who came in at 67-71-76—214.
Santa Clara was led by three players who tied for 15th, Derek Ackerman at 72-76-68—216, Konrad Brauckmeyer at 72-72-72—216 and Matthew McCarty at 71-72-73—216, while Yash Majmudar of the University of San Diego tied for 25th at 73-76-72—221.
Clay Feagler finished of team champion Pepperdine a tie for 36th at 77-69-80—226 and senior Roy Cootes came on as a substitute the last two days even though he missed graduation, and shot 72-68, making three birdies on the back nine.
For complete results visit http://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=17875
