GOLF | Ashbrook Leads Gaels To 4th Place Finish at WCC's

Saturday, May 1

Reflection Bay GC - Henderson, Nev.

All Day

Saint Mary's College of California

3rd Round

Photo by: Kyle Terada

GOLF | Ashbrook Leads Gaels To 4th Place Finish at WCC's

5/1/2021 4:01:00 PM | Men's Golf

HENDERSON, Nev. — Saint Mary's finished the 2021 West Coast Conference Championship with a bang on Saturday by shooting 10-under to finish fourth out of nine teams at Reflection Bay Golf Club. It's the 17th time in the past 19 years that the Gaels have finished fourth or better at the tournament under head coach Scott Hardy.

THE LEADERBOARD
The Gaels jumped two spots from yesterday to claim fourth place at the event. SMC posted the second best score for the second straight round to leapfrog San Diego and Loyola Marymount and finish just one stroke back of No. 25 San Francisco.

Ethan Ashbrook continued his torrid stretch over the past two weeks by shooting a 6-under par 66 in the final round. That total tied for the second lowest single-round score of the tournament and he ended up tying for third in the 45-man field for his best finish of his career. The Santa Maria, Calif. native led or co-led SMC in every single round at the Championship and posted the team's top finish at the PING Cougar Classic last weekend.

Blake Hathcoat and Evan Peterson notched Saint Mary's other two under-par totals of the day at 2-under. Hathcoat wound up claiming 15th place with a 4-under score between the three rounds while Peterson finished 1-over.

Michael Slesinski was even on Saturday to conclude the tourney at 2-under and finish in the top half of the field. Ethan Farnam rounded out the team's scores at 2-over.

No. 8 Pepperdine won the tournament by finishing 49-under. The Waves were 24 strokes ahead of the runner-up, BYU. Both Dylan Menante and Clay Feagler from Pepperdine shared medalist honors at 11-under, one stroke ahead of Ashbrook.

The complete leaderboard can be seen here.

FINAL ROUND HIGHLIGHTS

Ashbrook had six birdies and no bogeys on Saturday to earn a 6-under score.
Both Ashbrook and Slesinski scored back-to-back birdies on holes 12 and 13.
Hathcoat shot 3-under on the front 9.
SMC was one of only two teams to shoot under-par on par 4's during the tourney.
Ashbrook tied for first on par 4 performances (6-under) and was t-3rd on par 3's (1-under).
Slesinski led the field in pars with 42.

UP NEXT: SELECTION SHOW
Saint Mary's will now await to see if their name is called at the NCAA Selection show. The teams moving on to Regionals will be announced on Wednesday beginning at 11 a.m. A live stream will be available at NCAA.com.

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