Lauren Crumbaker
Staff Writer
The golf team finished in second place in the second Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament Saturday and Sunday at Los Serranos Country Club.
The team is second in SCIAC and 19th nationally in NCAA Division III.
The Leopards pulled in second both days of the tournament, trailing No. 1 Redlands with a combined score of 286 for the first round and 292 for the second for 578 overall.
“As a team, this was our best finish score-wise of the whole year,” sophomore Alec Spencer said. “We tend to be trending in the right direction, and each tournament we have improved.”
In the first round senior Kelby Scharmann led the team by coming in third with three under par.
Senior Trent Twamley trailed behind him in fourth place with two under par.
The Leopards came back Sunday with hopes of knocking out Redlands for the first place spot, but by the end, they still came out second keeping them in second place spot in SCIAC.
“We are building up good momentum,” freshman Andrew Cooper said. “Hopefully we can use that to bring home more wins and the championship.”
Scharmann finished three under par in third place with a combined score of 141.
“I was coming off one of my better tournaments of my college career, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to back it up,” Spencer said. “I played very well and have no complaints.”
Spencer went one under par and tied for fifth place with scores of 70 the first round and 73 in the second round for an overall score of 143.
Twamley blew up the second round, shooting a 78, moving him down to tie for 10th place with a combined score of 148, six over par.
With just one tournament left to play, the Leopards are focusing on qualifying for the national championships.
“We are taking a step back to look at what we have done so far, and what we can do to get better,” senior Michael Bonicatto said. “We are also looking at what other teams did well in the tournaments, so we can try to emulate what they are doing.”
The Leopards will return to action April 26-28 at Oak Valley Golf Course in Beaumont for the SCIAC Championships.
Lauren Crumbaker can be reached at lauren.crumbaker@laverne.edu.
