TUCSON, Ariz. (UNLVRebels.com) – The UNLV men's golf team shot a final-round 13-under Sunday to finish third with a 34-under 330 at the 2023 Mountain West Championship held on the Catalina Course at OMNI Tucson National (Par 72, 7,194 yards). The 54-hole overall and to-par team scores are a program record for the lowest ever by a Rebel squad in the conference's annual championship event.
Adding a third-place individual finish for the Rebels, junior
Caden Fioroni posted a final-round 6-under 66 to finish with a 54-hole score of 15-under 201. The score matched Fioroni's career-low round and was the lowest at the MW competition since former UNLV golfer Shintaro Ban shot a 16-under 200 in 2018.
Behind Fioroni, the Scarlet & Gray had two other top-12 finishers as freshman
Brett Sawaia tied for 10th at 9-under 209 and his brother
Ben Sawaia followed in 12th at 8-under 208. The former closed out his conference championship debut with a 1-under 71, while the latter saved his best round of the week for last with a final-round 5-under 67. The Rebel scorecard was rounded off by
Yuki Moriyama's even-par 216 to tie for 32nd, with senior
George Leigh (+5) coming in 42nd to wrap up action for UNLV's 5-man lineup.
In a MW Championship that saw three teams shoot better than 33-under for the first time ever, San Diego State won the team title with a tournament-record 60-under 804. The Aztecs also came away with the tournament's largest margin of victory, finishing 25 shots ahead of runner-up New Mexico at 35-under 829.
Walking away with the individual title, SDSU's Dylan Oyama won a playoff on the first hole to claim the tiebreaker against No. 23 Colorado State's Christopher Bleiers. Oyama and Bleiers each shot a tournament-record 19-under 197 through three rounds before heading to the playoff.
As part of the Silver State Series presented by America First Credit Union, the Rebels earned three points by finishing 43-shots ahead of ninth-place finisher UNR (+9).
UP NEXT FOR THE REBELS: UNLV will wait to hear its postseason fate on Wednesday, May 3 when NCAA Regional selections are announced live on the Golf Channel at 10 a.m. PT.
NOTES:
- UNLV bested its previous lows for a Mountain West Championship by 15 shots. The previous program record to-par and 54-hole scores for the conference's championship event were set by the Rebels when they won the league title in 2000.
- This was the Rebel men's golf program's first Mountain West Championship appearance under first-year head coach Jean-Paul Hebert.
- With their finish, the Rebels have finished third in two of the last three MW tournaments.
