(Chino Hills, CA) With a strong morning round of golf that built a 13-stroke lead over the eight other teams, the Mt. SAC Men's Golf Team captured second place at the California Community College Athletic Association (CCCAA) Southern California Regional Championships (Los Serranos Country Club-Chino Hills, CA) on Monday (5/6). The second-place finish sends the Mounties to their first championship appearance in 15 years, the last appearance in 2005 culminated with a state championship.
Tearing up the course was Mt. SAC freshman Chu-Wen (Felix) Tsui, finishing second overall, out of 67 golfers, with a two-round score of 141 (68-73). Tsui earned All-Southern California Region honors for his play.
"It's just so cool, it's unbelievable actually," said Tsui, who had 28 pars or better (22 pars, 6 birdies), out of the 36 holes. "I'm proud of (Mt. SAC) and even coach is proud of us.
"It's tough to get to state and we've been struggling, but right now we made it and everything's fantastic."
Jacob Montes of Palomar was the low medalist with a 139 (68-71).
The Mounties are one of four teams in the south headed to the state championships. So Cal Regional Champion College of the Canyons, Santa Barbara City College (3rd) and defending state champion Cypress (4th) will also join the Mounties.
The CCCAA State Championships will be held next Monday (5/13) at the Silverado Resort & Spa in Napa. The one-day, 36-hole, stroke-play event will take place on the 6,793-yard North course.
Eight teams, four from the North and South, will compete, along with 12 (6 North, 6 South) individual golfers not on a qualifying team.
In the 2018 championships the top three teams were Cypress, College of the Canyons and Orange Coast.
"The recruiting through the first two years is basically building," said Mt. SAC third-year coach and PGA member, Greg Osbourne. "The third year really is the transition year. It's worked out for me that way in the past. I thought it would happen to us this year and we're going to the state.
"I'm so proud of our team. We should have won conference (Orange Empire) and the Southern California Regionals, but things happened. The bottom line is anything can happen and we're going up there to have a very good time . They'll remember this for the rest of their lives."
For the third consecutive year the Mounties will be represented at the state finals, but for the first time since the program has been resurrected in 2017, the team will compete for the title.
Dylan Stone represented Mt. SAC in both 2017 and '18 as an individual.
After the morning round (18 holes), Mt. SAC led Cypress and Canyons by 13-strokes with the following five scores: Hanseop Lee, 67; Blake Copeland, 67; Tsui, 68; Julio Ibarra, 72 and Joshua Song, 73 which totaled 347 for the team. The Mounties sixth-man was John Dearth with a 78.
The Mountie lead deteriorated after the afternoon round, when windy conditions affected their play on the hilly course.
College of the Canyons, which has made a habit of advancing to the state tournament numerous times with its seven state titles, came crawling all the way back in the back nine, totalling 166 as a team. The Mounties faded 19 strokes behind Cypress for a 185 and lost the So Cal title by a mere six strokes.
|
Mt. SAC Individual Scores |
|
| Tsui | 141 (68-73) |
| Lee | 143 (67-76) |
| Copeland | 147 (67-80) |
| Ibarra | 150 (72-78) |
| Song | 154 (73-81) |
| Dearth | 156 (78-78) |
| SoCal Team Scores | |
| Canyons | 726 (360-366) |
| Mt. SAC | 732 (347-385) |
| Santa Barbara | 739 (379-360) |
| Cypress | 740 (360-380) |
| Orange Coast | 741 (372-369) |
| Palomar | 744 (368-376) |
| Ventura | 781 (396-385) |
| College of the Desert | 781 (391-390) |
| Bakersfield | 795 (385-410) |
Follow Mt. SAC Men's Golf on twitter @MtSAC_MGolf
Follow Mt. SAC Athletics on twitter @MtSAC_athletics or Facebook @Mountie.Athletics
For additional information, please contact the Mt. SAC Sports Information Office at 909.274.4630.