No. 21 Men's Golf wins West Cup

LA VERNE, Calif. — Aaron DiGiamarino fired off a 1-under 70 in the final round of the West Cup and the No. 21 La Verne men's golf team won the tournament for the second year in a row on Tuesday.

The Leopards sat in eighth place as a team after the first round on Monday but roared back to post a second round-low score of 290 in the afternoon and carried the positive momentum into the final round.

"La Verne golf has had a history of toughness and this was the first time that I've seen resilience from this group," La Verne coach Eric Riehle said. "We keep gettting better as the season progresses but we still need to get a little bit better over the next month in order to accomplish our main goals."

DiGiamarino was plus-two through the first seven holes but came to life with an eagle on the par-5 eighth and stayed at or near the top of the player leaderboard the rest of the way. He had a chance to force a playoff for the individual medal with a par on the final hole, but settled for a bogey and finished second overall with a total score of 218.

The Leopards scored two more top-10 cards. Alec Spencer struggled out of the gate but finished strong with back-to-back birdies to close out the round and placed sixth overall with a total score of 222. Jason Brown continued his strong play to card a 2-over 73 and finished just one stroke behind Spencer at seventh.

Conner Davis shook off a slow start to the tournament and posted a 4-over 75 to round out La Verne's scoring for the day.

Austin Matzaganian came into the clubhouse with a a 6-over 77.

La Verne's "B" team, who got off to a blistering start, held strong and placed eighth, finishing ahead of nationally-ranked Pacific Lutheran and three SCIAC rivals.

Henrik Skogseth and Josh Davis both carded 74s to lead the way in the final round. Hisham Hussein shot a 78 and Jim Nicholson completed the scoring with a 79.

"The West Cup is one of the best Division III touraments in the country and I look at it as a credible experience for our young guys and it just proves the depth that we thought we had from the beginning of the season," Riehle said. "Any one of those guys can challenge for lineup spots and that only makes our entire lineup better."

The Leopards are back in action at SCIAC No. 2 on April 8-9 at Oak Quarry Golf Club.