April 26, 2006

LAS VEGAS - The No. 6 UNLV men's golf team will compete at the 2006 Mountain West Conference Men's Golf Championship beginning on Thursday, April 27 at the Crosswater Course (par 72, 7,568 yards) in Sunriver, Ore. This year will mark the sixth straight time that Sunriver has hosted the MWC Championship.

UNLV won the inaugural MWC Championship in 2000 and again in 2002, and will now be looking for its third conference championship in seven years. BYU won in 2001, and New Mexico is the three-time defending champion, winning in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Individually, UNLV has had two winners of the MWC Championship with Michael Kirk claiming medalist honors in 2000 and Ryan Moore in 2004.

Last year, UNLV finished second as a team at the MWC Championship, three shots behind New Mexico. BYU's Nick Becker earned medalist honors with UNLV's top finishers being Ryan Moore who tied for third and Ryan Keeney who tied for fifth.

Competing for the Rebels in this year's MWC Championship will be senior Andres Gonzales, sophomore Jarred Texter, freshman Seung-Su Han, sophomore C.J. Gatto and sophomore Matt Kinsinger. Gonzales and Texter are the only Rebels with previous MWC Championship experience. Gonzales finished tied for 12th last year and tied for 30th in 2004. Texter tied for ninth last year.

Play at the 54-hole tournament will begin each day at 9:00 a.m. PDT with 18 holes each day from Thursday through Saturday.

UNLV has won two team titles this season (Tucker Invitational in Albuquerque, N.M., in September and the Southern Highlands Collegiate Championship in Las Vegas in March) and has had two individual medalists (Gonzales at the Tucker and Kinsinger at the Southern Highlands Collegiate) and a third who tied for first before losing in a playoff (Han at the University of Hawaii Fall Intercollegiate in November).

Live stats for the event will be available through a link on UNLVRebels.com to Golfstat.