Connor Reis of St. Mary’s College in Moraga claimed the individual title and led the Gaels to the team championship in the Nick Watney Invitational Championship at Fort Washington Country Club in Fresno.
St. Mary’s captured its first team title since tying for first at the El Macero Classic hosted by UC Davis in April of 2021.
“This is the win our team has been waiting for,” Coach Scott Hardy said. “We have the talent and our players have been working hard. To see it pay off and take home the trophy this week is very gratifying. I think this has a chance to be the start of a lot of really strong golf season and success for this group. We will get back to work and prepare to come out and play like this when we head to our next tournament at Cal.”
The Gaels finished with a score of 274-269-273—816, 36-under-par, while Cal State Fullerton was second at 277-273-270—820, followed by tournament host Fresno State at 284-272-269—825, Pacific at 276-279-272—827, and Sacramento State at 271-278-282—831.
Utah State was sixth at 283-281-278—842, followed by UC Irvine at 286-275-283—844, Cal State Northridge at 284-278-283—845, California Baptist at 277-280-289—846 and Seattle University at 287-287-273—847.
UC Riverside wound up 14th at 293-301-287—881.
Reis, a junior from Claremont, earned his first college victory with a score of 66-62-67—195, 18-under-par, setting a St. Mary’s record with his score in the second round, while Darien Zhao of UC Irvine was second at 66-62-72—200, followed by Tegan Andrews of Cal State Fullerton at 68-66-67—201.
“Absolutely solid play all tournament for Connor,” Coach Hardy said. “To make only one bogey the entire 54 holes is unbelievable. He set the tournament record with his 18-under par finish at a tournament that has as much history as any in college golf.
“It’s been played since 1964 and the list of previous winners is loaded PGA Tour players and superstars like Phil Mickelson, Tom Watson, Nick Watney and Craig Stadler. We couldn’t be prouder of the way Connor performed this week.”
Michell Hoey of St. Mary’s shot 68-67-67—202 to tie for fourth with Matthew Schafer of Cal State Fullerton, who finished at 66-68-68—202, while Matthew Manganello of Fresno State totaled 73-68-62—203 to tie for sixth with Jason Tang of UC Irvine, who finished at 74-65-64—203, and Carlos Astiazaran of Pacific, who wound up at 67-71-65—203.
Tim Jung of Pacific totaled 69-67-68—204 to tie for ninth with Ashton McArthur of Utah State, who came in at 66-67-71—204.
Rounding out the scoring for team champion St. Mary’s were Kristian Bressum in a tie for 11th at 68-66-71—205, Aiden Lee in a tie for 22nd at 71-72-67—210, Jack Jerge in a tie for 35th at 70-69-74—213, James Watney in a tie for 39th at 70-76-68—214, and Jonathan Curran in a tie for 48th at 71-74-71—216.
Antonio Sale led Cal State Northridge shot 66-70-69–205 to finish in a tie for 11th that included Gabriel Smith of Sacramento State, who wound up at 67-67-71—205, while Eeli Kujanpaa of Cal Baptist tied for 18th at 67-68-73—208, and Nik Killitson of UC Riverside tied for 48th at 73-70-73—216.
St. Mary will play next in the Alister MacKenzie Invitational on Oct. 9-10 at the Meadow Club in Fairfax.
For complete results, visit: https://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=team&tid=28264
