Dylan Menante of top-ranked Pepperdine claimed his second straight victory, but the defending champion Waves fell one stroke short.
Menante, a junior from Carlsbad, won by three strokes over Pierceson Coody of team champion Texas, Rasmus Hjelm of Colorado State and Carson Lindell of Brigham Young in the 75th annual Western Intercollegiate at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz.
“It’s so great to win here because this course is so difficult with the slopes, greens, the wind and sometimes rain,” said Menante (pictured), who won the Valspar Collegiate in his last start for his first college victory. “This is great for my confidence and sets me up perfectly going into the conference championship.
“Today was my Grandma’s birthday and it was great to have her and the rest of my family out here to watch me win today. This means so much for my confidence with the conference finals and the regionals coming up.”
Menante, who played at Sage Creek High School, chipped in for a birdie from a ridge behind the 11th green and sank a 30-foot birdie putt at No. 11 while posting a 54-hole score of 70-72-67—209, 1-under-par, Coody finished at 70-73-69—212, Lundell wound up at 77-70-65—212, and Hjelm shot 70-69-73—212.
Justin Hastings of San Diego State posted a score of 72-71-70—213 to tie for fifth with Chase Sienkiewicz of Arizona, who totaled 72-71-70—213.
Derek Hitchner of Pepperdine shot 73-74-67—214 to finish in a big tie for seventh with Grayson Leach of Oregon (75-72-67—214), Travis Vick of Texas (73-73-68—214, RJ Manke of Washington (73-72-69—214), Mason Nome of Texas (78-66-70—214), and Cole Hammer of Texas (73-70-71—214).
Eighth-ranked Texas, which won for the third time this season, finished with a winning score of 371-357-347—1075, 25-over, followed by Pepperdine at 370-361-345—1076, seventh-ranked Washington at 373-376-342—1091, San Diego State at 379-365-348—1092 and Brigham Young at 386-368-343—1097.
“It was a challenging week, but it’s great to win on a difficult golf course with tough greens against some strong teams,” Texas Coach John Fields said. “You have to play well here to finish on top, and we did, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the season.
“I’m just so proud of these guys.”
Coach Michael Beard of defending national champion Pepperdine said: “It was a great week for us even though we came up one short. We started the week out well in tough conditions, but just couldn’t finish it off today. But we have a great team with veteran players and we’ll be ready for the conference tournament and the regionals.”
Oregon was sixth at 381-372-348—1101, California at 374-380-362—1116, while Colorado State totaled 380-372-365—1117 to tie for eighth with Arizona, which wound up at 381-368-368-1117, and San Jose State was 10th at 376-394-349—1119.
USC finished 11th at 384-375-370—1129, while Stanford totaled 395-383-357—1129 to tie for 12th with UC Irvine, which came in at 389-387-359—1135.
For complete results, visit https://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=23988
