Golf surprises field with 2nd place

by Agke Grow
Sports Editor

The Leopards issued a wake-up call on Tuesday to the rest of the conference by placing second in an 18-hole tournament at Brookside on Tuesday.

The University of La Verne, who entered last week in fifth place in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic conference (SCIAC), had some outstanding performances, and earned seven points for finishing second.

"We've played well against Caltech and the teams we're supposed to beat," said freshman Joey Gill. "But when we've played the good teams we haven't really shown up. It was kind of neat that we all shot good scores at the same time."

Senior Jim Brooks paced the Leopards with a three over 75, followed by senior Steve Lewis with a 78, and Gill with a 79.

"We were feeling pretty good," said head coach Rex Huigens. "The guys were excited. We've got a good group of guys, and they've never given up, so its good to see some reward for that.

"We'll go out and try to do it again Friday."

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, who won the tournament, was led by Avi Khitri, who shot a 73, and John Brooks, who scored a 75.

Gill had an opportunity to challenge Khitri's score, and was just two over heading to the 16th hole. However, he hit a shot out of bounds on 16, went on to make a triple-bogey and bogeyed the final two holes to finish at seven over par.

"[Sixteen] really hurt me mentally. I was playing well. I was putting very well, but just one bad hole ruined the round," said Gill, "but I was happy with my play today."

The win gave La Verne seven points, and helped to ease the pain of the upsets the team suffered at Sierra La Verne earlier in the season.

"We had a couple real disappointments losing to Pomona at home and Redlands at home," said Huigens. "Consequently, we're in a little bit of a hole. This is a start of climbing out of it a little bit."

Huigens said, however, that he is more concerned about playing well throughout the rest of the season than where the squad finishes.

Gill said, "I think everybody's game is coming on right now. If we just put together some good scores, we really have a chance. I think we're one of the better teams in the conference, and we hadn't played to our potential yet, which kind of surprised some people today."

Today at noon the golf team will play another 18-hole SCIAC tournament at River Ridge, Cal Lutheran University's home course. On Thursday, April 27. the SCIAC championship will be held at Brookside.