Poets finish seventh at 2009 SCIAC Championships

MOORPARK, Calif. - The Whittier College golf team completed its 2009 season on Monday, April 27, at the 2009 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships at Tierra Rejada Golf Club and the Poets finished seventh.

Whittier was led by Nikhil Bhardwaj who shot a team-low nine over par in the two-round tournament. His 153 two-round total ranked 22nd and was 15 shots off the lead. His second round 75 was only five shots off the second-round low.

The Poets also had one of only four players to hit an Eagle in the competition. Donny Garrison finished with an 18-over par 162 but joined the likes of Mitchell Fedorka (first place), Andrew Kramer (11th place) and Sean Elverum (18th place) to Eagle a hole.

Garrison improved by eight strokes from Round 1 to Round 2.

WC also got a pair of 16-over par 160's from Ryan Kitabyashi and Paul Gray who finished in a three-way tie for 33rd place. Kitabyashi shot an 80 on both days while Gray went 79 and 81 for the two-round tournament.

Andrew Moreno-Hunt was the final Poet to place as he shot a 19-over 163. He had an 86 in the first round but took nine strokes off his score for a second round 77.

As a team the Poets averaged 3.48 strokes on the Par 3 holes. Occidental College led the way with a 3.10 average. Whittier averaged 4.47 on Par 4 holes. Redlands paced the group on Par 4's with a 4.19 average. Finally, Whittier averaged 5.32 on Par 5's while La Verne led with a 4.67 average.

For the tournament the purple and gold totaled 18 birdies, 89 pars and one eagle.

La Verne finished first with a 573 as they were followed closely by Redlands (583) and Occidental (584). Claremont-M-S (589), Cal Lutheran (596), Pomona-Pitzer (608) and Whittier (631) round out the rest of the field.