CHICO, Calif. – Sonoma State University finished under par for the second straight round to claim the InterWest Wildcat Classic team title Tuesday at Butte Creek Country Club in Chico. Jarin Todd’s second consecutive 2-under par 70 earned him medalist honors by two strokes over teammates Patrick Bauer and Keith Rodriguez and Chico State’s Brandon Harkins. Todd (74-70-70–214) finished 2-under for the tournament, while Harkins, Bauer, and Rodriguez came in at even par.
The Seawolves, who entered the weekend ranked No. 2 in the nation, played like it, winning by 10 strokes at 9-over par with rounds of 303, 284, and 286. That’s 14 strokes better than they played the same course in their runner-up finish last season. Tenth-ranked Cal State San Bernardino, which held a seven-stroke lead after the opening round, held off Chico State by a stroke to finish second at 19-over par. No. 8 Chico State carded the day’s second best round of the day after Sonoma State, a 292, and finished at 20-over par.
Cal State Monterey Bay, ranked 18th in the nation, finished fourth at 29-over. Chico State’s second team came in fifth (+42) and beat more than half of the field, including fellow Division II schools St. Martin’s University (+46), Cal State Stanislaus (+52), Dixie State (+69), Notre Dame de Namur (+86), and Northwest Nazarene (+97). Academy Of Art University finished 10th at 95-over, and William Jessup, which cut 63 strokes off its final total from last year’s tournament, carded a +103.
The host Wildcats were certainly somewhat disappointed with their third-place team finish, but did have some very good individual efforts to boast about. Harkins was 1-under in each of the last two rounds to get into the hunt for the title. Lucas Delgado shot the round of the tournament Tuesday, a 4-under par 68, to move up from a tie for 13th place into fifth, the final All-Tournament spot. He birdied five of his first 10 holes and a bogey on the 18th was his only one of the round.
Freshman Kyle Souza struggled to a 77 Tuesday, but led heading into the final round and finished in a tie for seventh. Greg Marskey led the Wildcats’ second team with a 6-over par 222, good for a tie for 10th place, giving the Wildcats four of the top-10 finishers.
Todd played bogey-free golf Tuesday and birdied the par-four 11th and 16th. In fact, after a triple-bogey on the par-four fifth hole in Monday’s second round, Todd played 8-under, bogey-free golf over his final 31 holes of the tournament to come-from-behind and claim medalist honors.
Chico State is back in action next Monday and Tuesday at the Sonoma State Invitational at the Santa Rosa Country Club.
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