San Diego State storms back to capture Mountain West title
Xander Schauffele
TUCSON, Ariz. — Led by Xander Schauffele and Ryann Ree, San Diego State came back from a 11-shot deficit to win the Mountain West Conference Championship by a stroke over the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
UNLV, who led Nevada by eight entering the final round, shot three-over on Sunday while the Aztecs fired nine-under 275, including 67s from Schauffele and Ree.
"This is a special group of players," said Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan. "They played for each other today and their resiliency paid off."
It was still a wire-to-wire individual win for UNLV senior Kurt Kitayama despite shooting one-over 72 in his final round. The Chico, Calif. native opened with back-to-back 65s, helping him win the title by two shots over Schauffele.
The Running Rebels should still have a good shot at making it to NCAA Regionals with their second-place finish, which came by six shots over Nevada and seven over New Mexico.
ABOUT THE Mountain West Championship
54 hole men's collegiate championship of the
Mountain West Conference. Team (best four scores
out
of five players) and individual competitions.
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