The No. 9 University of Redlands men's golf team looks forward to competing in the 2019 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championships on Thursday, April 18, through Saturday, April 20, at the Brookside Golf Club in Pasadena.
The SCIAC champion is determined by the aggregate score of the seven conference rounds played by each member team. With a score of 1,181 through four rounds, the Bulldogs sit in second place but only trail the University of La Verne by one stroke in an extremely tight race. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges (1,185) and Occidental College (1,215) make up third and fourth, while Cal Lutheran University and Chapman University are tied for fifth (1,224). Pomona-Pitzer Colleges heads into the final three rounds with 1,241 strokes for seventh place, while Whittier College sits eighth with a total of 1,296.
While leading wire-to-wire as a team, Redlands placed two golfers among a three-way tie for medalist honors during the opening SCIAC tournament, as juniors Jake Hollander (Peterborough, NH) and Cameron Cooper (Seattle, WA) each carded two-day tallies of 142. Senior Cade Lawson (Lake Oswego, OR) posted a 144 to rally from 18th on day one to fourth place due to a second-round score of 69. Senior Alex Stroes (San Marcos, CA) tied for 12th (148), as first-year Kyle Sharp (Austin, TX) added a 149 to land in a tie for 16th place.
During the SCIAC Tournament No. 2, the Bulldogs rallied back to secure a third-place finish, with Lawson leading the charge. He climbed 11 spots on the leaderboard to fourth place (149). Hollander finished three strokes behind him to tie for sixth place (151). Sharp tallied a 153 for a 12th-place tie, as Cooper and junior Diego Cortes (Santiago, Chile) each entered the clubhouse with a 161.
Redlands looks to improving upon its third-place showing from a year ago while striving to dethrone CMS, which has won the previous three titles. The Bulldogs' last conference championship came in 2015 when they also finished fifth at the NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships.
The SCIAC champion also receives an automatic bid to the national tournament.