Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
WAC Championships
No. 5 Fresno State Golf Takes WAC Championship Title
5/4/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
May 3, 2000
FRESNO, Calif. - After an hour and a half delay due to storm warnings and rain, the Bulldogs teed off for the third and final round of the WAC Championship tournament en route to earning the first championship title for Fresno State in six years. The Bulldogs held onto their 13 stroke lead from day two, added one, and took the WAC Championship with a score of 284-287-285--856 (-8), 14 strokes ahead of second place SMU (294-291-285--870). All five Bulldogs finished in the top-20 to earn the title. TCU finished in third with a score of 293-291-287--871, Tulsa finished fourth with a final score of 292-299-290--881 and UTEP took fifth with 300-298-286--884. Hawai'i earned sixth place (300-297-303--900) and Rice and San Jose State tied for seventh with score of 306-302-301--909 and 303-310-296--909 respectively.
Tulsa's Martin Maritz won the individual title with a three day score of 70-70-68--208 (-8). Fresno State's Todd Rose took second place with scores of 69-69-72--210 (-6) and Ryan King finished third with 68-71-73--212 (-4). Danny Paniccia finished in a tie for sixth place with 76-72-69--217 (+1), Nick Watney tied for 13th with a three day scores of 71-77-73--221 (+5) and Josh Watney finished in a tie for 15th with 76-75-71--222 (+6).
For Rose, the second place WAC finish marks his season-highest finish and his fourth top-5 finish this year. King's third place finish marks his fifth top-5 finish this year and his 10th top-20 finish in his 11 tournaments. Both Bulldogs are in line to break Fresno State's all-time season lowest per-round average record set in 1980 by Tim Norris at 71.80. King and Rose now hold 2000 season averages of 71.48 and 71.60 respectively.
"We played a little up tight on the front nine," head coach Mike Watney said. "But we came back strong on the back side. This was only the second time this year we took out the umbrella."
The WAC Championships were hosted by SMU and played in Lewisville, Texas, at the Golf Club at Castle Hills, a par 72, 7,152-yard course.
