Men's Golf Southern Conference

WCU Rallies to Third-Place Finish at Wyoming Cowboy Classic

Trio of Catamounts finish in individual top 25 led by Kyle Wilson in 17th

 

Scottsdale, Ariz. ? With three Catamounts finishing in the top 25 on the individual scoreboard, Western Carolina rallied from a 12th-place standing after the opening round to finish third at the 2010 Wyoming Cowboy Classic held at the par-70, 7,133-yard Talking Stick Golf Course. All told, the Catamounts finished in front of four teams that ranked inside the top 100 in the most recent Golf Stat rankings.

 

Sophomore Kyle Wilson bookended his three rounds by matching his career-low 68 twice to lead the squad with a 17th-place finish at the 54-hole event. Wilson finished tied for second amongst the 130 golfers with 40 pars over the 54-hole event as a part of 179 combined pars for the Catamounts.

 

WCU seniors Ricky Stout and Tanner Briele finished 20th and 25th, respectively, to lead the way for WCU. Stout posted two rounds of one-over, 71, while Briele shot even-par on the opening 18.

 

CSU-Northridge won the 24-team event by nine strokes over San Diego, 841-to-850, with WCU finishing third with a two-day tally of 854. Big XII-members Oklahoma and Colorado both finished tied for fourth two strokes in arrears at 856.

 

Western Carolina shot rounds of 285 and 288 with the final round of 281 marking a season-low for the squad, while also tying for fourth-best all-time in program history. The team’s three-round score of 854 also ranked as the fourth best 54-hole score in school history.

 

San Diego’s Gunner Wiebe fired a seven-under 203 to win the individual medalist honors by two strokes over Jeff Freund of CSU-Northridge (205). Ben Blundell of Oklahoma finished third with a two-under, 208, with Tom Whitney of Air Force, Jason Shano of San Diego and Sebastian Heisele of Colorado each finishing tied for fourth at one-over, 211.

 

Rounding out Western Carolina’s five golfers in the overall finishing order were freshman Trey White (t-36th, 218) and senior Drew Miller (t-53rd, 221). White posted an even-par 70 in the second round, while Miller shot 70 on the final 18 holes for the Cats.

 

Western Carolina returns to action April 9-11 at the UK Bluegrass Classic, hosted by the University of Kentucky at the University Club in Lexington, Ky. The Catamounts posted a second-place finish at the Bluegrass Classic last season.