GOLF | Saint Mary's Grabs Share of First at El Macero

Monday, April 12

El Macero CC - El Macero, Calif.

All Day

Saint Mary's College of California

3rd Round

Photo by: Derrick Tuskan/San Diego State

GOLF | Saint Mary's Grabs Share of First at El Macero

4/12/2021 5:45:00 PM | Men's Golf

EL MACERO, Calif. — Saint Mary's posted one of the lowest scores in the final round of the El Macero Classic on Monday to jump one spot on the leaderboard and share first place with the host UC Davis. The tournament win marks the team's first top finish at an event since their outright win at the Inverness Intercollegiate in the fall of 2017.

THE LEADERBOARD
The Gaels shot 6-under on Monday and made some clutch shots late in the round to grab a share of the tournament title. SMC had two birdies on the final hole to pull even with the Aggies courtesy of Michael Slesinski and Blake Hathcoat. Saint Mary's concluded the 54-hole tourney with a 16-under combined score.

"This tournament was a great step toward the goals we set for this season last fall," said Gaels' head coach Scott Hardy. "This was a total team effort and that is what we have focused on and talked about all year. I'm proud to see our players hard work paying off. We will refocus and get ready to compete against a strong field at BYU next week."

Rounding out the top-5 at the 15-team El Macero Classic were No. 29 San Francisco (14-under), Fresno State (13-under), and Santa Clara (6-under). The Gaels' 6-under score in the last round was second only to UC Davis' 7-under total.

Slesinski improved by eight strokes from yesterday to give Saint Mary's a much needed 2-under round. His teammate Evan Peterson also shot 2-under in the last round to finish tied for 13th at 1-under.

Hathcoat and Ethan Ashbrook both shot 1-under to finish t-13th and t-18th, respectively. The two Gaels counted their scores on all three days of the tournament. Ethan Farnam was 3-over on Monday but still had the team's best overall finish at t-10th. The senior had a 65 in the first round that tied for the lowest round score of the entire tournament.

Dylan VanderVeer competed as an individual for Saint Mary's and had his best performance of the competition in the final round at 2-over.

Fresno State's Matthew Sunderland won medalist honors at 13-under. A total of 80 golfers competed in the event. The full results of the tournament can be found here.

FINAL ROUND HIGHLIGHTS

Hathcoat was 3-under on the final five holes of the round.
Four holes posted birdies on the 515 yard par 5 15th.
Peterson recorded back-to-back birds on holes 12 and 13.
As a team, SMC was 3-under on both the front and back nine.
SMC posted the best score of any team in the tourney on par 3's at 2-over and second best score on par 5's (20-under).
Peterson tied for second in the field with 40 pars.

UP NEXT: COUGAR CLASSIC
Saint Mary's final tune up before the conference tournament comes next week at the Cougar Classic in Provo, Utah. The event is hosted by BYU and takes place at Riverside Country Club from April 23-24.

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