What started out as an impressive beginning to the 57th annual Western Intercollegiate was even better Tuesday as Oregon was able to hold its position from the opening two rounds to finish the tournament fourth overall. It was Oregon’s first top-5 finish — other than its own Oregon Duck Invitational — since the California Invitational Oct. 14-15.
The Ducks shot a final-round 291 to edge Pacific by one stroke, however, the Ducks were out-dueled by third-place finisher Texas El Paso and finished only one stroke behind UTEP.
Junior Mike Sica concluded the tournament with a career best finish after shooting his second consecutive even-par round of 70. Sica led three other Ducks in the top 30 overall. Sica finished the tournament in a tie for 10th overall after shooting rounds of 74-70-70 for a four-over 214. Sica’s previous best finish was a tie for 12th at the Alister Mackenzie Invitational last October.
No. 10 UCLA held on for the tournament victory after posting a 13-stroke lead over second place finisher UC Irvine after the first two rounds of competition. UC Irvine came within seven strokes of UCLA. Steve Conway of UCLA won the individual title after shooting a two-under 208.
Another notable finisher for the Ducks was senior Chris Carnahan’s 14th-place finish at 217 for the three-round tournament. John Ellis followed that with a 26th-place finish at 221. Redshirt Freshman Kyle Johnson, in his first varsity appearance since the Club Grove Intercollegiate Oct. 7-8, concluded the tournament tied for 30th overall at 222. Johnson was one off his career low Tuesday in which he shot a final round one-over 71.
“I’m quite pleased with our performances,” coach Steve Nosler said. “The greens were very fast today, and we gave some shots away, but we also made some very good shots.”
It was Oregon’s fourth-consecutive top-6 finish at 6,445 yard, par-70 Pasatiempo Golf Course.
The Ducks, unsure if their previous play would earn them a bid in next month’s NCAA West Regional, helped their cause by defeating 10 of the other 12 District 8 teams.
“I think we helped ourselves quite a bit by finishing higher than most of the teams in our district who were here, including a few who were ranked ahead of us,” Nosler said. “This puts us in good shape to go down and have a good tournament at Arizona State.”