Dylan Menante of Pepperdine claimed the first victory of his college career and led the defending NCAA champion Waves to a 14-stroke victory over 22nd-ranked Florida State in the Valspar Collegiate Invitational at Floridian National Golf Club in Palm City, Fla.
The fourth-ranked Waves captured their second victory of the season, having also won the Golf Club of Georgia Collegiate in the Fall, by posting a score of 274-266-278—818, 34-under-par, while Florida State finished at 274-285-273—832.
Wake Forest was third at 280-281-276—837, followed by Duke at 285-276-277—838, third-ranked Arizona State at 272-282-285—839, Ohio State at 276-285-279—840, and fifth-ranked North Carolina at 281-275-285—841.
South Florida totaled 284-282-281—847 to tie for eighth with seventh-ranked Texas Tech, which wound up at 280-284-283—847, and Clemson was 10th at 285-280-286—851.
USC was 14th at 283-293-290—866.
Menante, a junior from Carlsbad who has finished second on four occasions this season and won the Northeast Amateur Invitational last summer, carded a winning score of 64-65-70—199, 14-under, while Frederik Kjettrup of Florida State was second at 64-72-64—200, and Ludvig Aberg of Texas Tech shot 67-68-67—202 to tie for third with Jacob Bridgeman of Clemson, who finished at 67-63-72—202.
After taking a one-stroke lead to the final round, Menante stretched his margin to four strokes by making five birdies in the first 13 holes, which allowed him to hold off Kjettrup by one despite closing with three straight bogeys.
Kelly Chinn of Duke was fifth at 70-68-65—203, while Jackson Rivera of USC shot 66-68-70—204 to tie for sixth with Ian Siebers of Duke, who wound up at 70-64-70—204, and Scotty Kennon of Wake Forest was eighth at 72-69-64—205, followed by Joe Highsmith of Pepperdine at 68-66-72—206.
William Mouw of Pepperdine posted a score of 71-69-67—207 to tie for 10th with Walker Lee of Texas Tech, who totaled 70-68-69—207, Ryan Gerard of North Carolina, who shot 68-70-69—207, and Ryan Burnett of North Carolina, who came in 67-67-73—207.
Rounding out the scoring for team champion Pepperdine were Derek Hitchner in a tie for 22nd at 71-66-74—211 and Ian Maspat in a tie for 31st at 72-71-69—212.
The Waves will next defend their title in the Western Intercollegiate on April 11-13 at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz.
For complete results, visit https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=24503
