April 16, 2007
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SDSU Golf Heads To 2007 MWC Championships In Utah
After a two-week break, the San Diego State women's golf team resumes competition with the 54-hole 2007 Mountain West Conference Championships, April 19-21. The Aztecs return to the Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club in St. George, Utah, for their second consecutive tournament, having finished tied for eighth at the BYU Dixie Classic, April 3-4.
The MWC tournament is in Utah for the second straight year at the par-71, 6,210-yard Entrada at Snow Canyon, following five seasons at the Sunriver Resort in Oregon. The first MWC women's golf championships was actually held in St. George at the Sunbrook Golf Club in 2000.
This year's tournament field includes seven schools for the second straight year, as TCU came into the fold in 2005-06. Four teams are ranked in the top 45 nationally according to golfstat.com, including three-time reigning MWC champion No. 45 UNLV.
Schools will play 18 holes each of the three days, following a practice round Wednesday afternoon. The Aztecs will be paired with BYU and TCU in group No. 3 for the first round, starting at 11:10 a.m. MT from the first tee.
Aztec Line-Up For This Week
Aztec head coach Felicia Brown will take three sophomores, one junior and one senior to this week's Mountain West Conference championships. The group has combined to play in just five previous league tournaments, with only one having competed twice prior to this season.
Senior Jamie Oliver (Los Alamitos, Calif.), who tied for 23rd a year ago, will be joined by fellow returnees sophomores Maki Kamimura (West Covina, Calif.) and Alana Erlandson (Palm Desert, Calif). Kamimura was the Aztecs' top golfer at the 2006 event with a three round total of 13-over 229, which was good for 13th place. Erlandson, meanwhile, was right behind her in 17th place with a 231.
Sophomore Jackie Kazarian (West Covina, Calif.) returns after a one year absence after redshirting a year ago, while junior transfer Kim Carmody (Palatine, Ill.) makes her MWC championship debut.
Kamimura boasts the best spring season stroke average of the Aztecs' five players at 77.92, and has participated in eight of the nine team events in 2006-07. Oliver and Kazarian have played in every team tournament during both the fall and spring campaigns, while Erlandson has missed just one outing. Carmody did not participate in any team events during the fall but has been a member of SDSU's same starting five during the spring.
The Competition
Three of SDSU's opponents this week are ranked in the top 40 in the golfstat.com rankings as of April 11. UNLV, which has won the last three conference tournaments, is rated as 34th by Golfweek and 45th by Golfstat. The Lady Rebels are behind No. 16/17 New Mexico, which claimed the first four MWC titles from 2000-03, and No. 17/15 Brigham Young. TCU (No. 28/24) is also in the top 40, while Colorado State holds the next highest ranking at No. 75/75. San Diego State (No.89 /96) and Wyoming (No. 144/144) round out the field.
The Aztecs have three victories in head-to-head results versus Wyoming (2-0) and Colorado State (1-1) this season, but are winless against the other four schools. Brigham Young has been SDSU's most frequent opponent in 2006-07, as the two schools have competed in the same tournament on five occasions.
Individually, nine of the top 11 finishers from last year's MWC tournament return, including medalist Da Sol Chung from UNLV, who won in a playoff.
The MWC is well represented in this year's individual national rankings with No. 11 Rachel Newren (BYU) and No. 38 Catherine Matranga (TCU) in the top 50 golfers.
SDSU In The MWC Tournament
In the seven-year history of the Mountain West Conference, SDSU has finished second twice, fifth on four occasions and fourth once.
Last season, the Aztecs took fifth with a 930 (+66). SDSU was also fifth in 2005, fourth in 2004, and fifth in 2003, following a runner-up performance in both 2001 and 2002. The Aztecs were disqualified in the inaugural tournament in 2000, after two players turned in incorrect score cards in the third and final round.
Individually, the highest SDSU finish came in 2002, when Heather Rollo tied for second place with a 218, just two strokes out of first. Jenna Wilson owns the school record for the best score in a 54-hole conference tournament with a two-over par 215 in 2004.
Mountain West History Lesson
New Mexico dominated the first four years of the MWC championship, claiming the team title by at least 11 shots in each of the first three years before coming back to defeat UNLV in 2003 by one stroke. The Lady Rebels got their revenge, knocking off the Lobos by two strokes in both 2004 and 2005 to claim the conference championship. UNLV captured its third straight title in 2006, with a five stroke win over New Mexico.
Four different schools have had a player win the individual title, including UNLV (2004, 2005, 2006), New Mexico (2001, 2003), Colorado State (2002) and Wyoming (2000).
The first MWC championship took place at the Sunbrook Golf Club in St. George, Utah. The tournament then moved to Sunriver the next five seasons, however, the first round of the 2003 event was played at the Awbrey Glen Golf Course in Bend, Ore., due to inclement weather.
The course yardage has topped 6,000 seven times with the longest being 6,312 in 2005.
New Mexico and UNLV own all but one of the 12 MWC championship records.
MWC Championship Results
Live stats will be provided for this year's MWC championship. The stats will be available on the MWC website (www.themwc.com) or via Golfstat (golfstat.com).