JURUPA VALLEY, Calif. - Tuesday, the UC San Diego men's golf team tied for 13th place at The Joust, hosted by California Baptist at Goose Creek Golf Club in Riverside County.

UC San Diego finished the 54-hole tournament with a 910, 70-over par. The Tritons posted their best score in Tuesday's third round, a 296 to go along with a 309 in the second round and a 305 in Monday's opening round. 

Here's a look at where the Tritons finished:
 
T-41. Blake Iwaisako (74-76-76--226, +16)
T-45 Alex Hanz (77-79-72--228, +18)
T-45. Davis Lee (75-78-75--228, +18)
T-55. Ethan Chen (79-78-73--230, +20)
83. Ryan Vaughan (85-77-79--241, +31)
T-77: Sergi Mata de la Barata Barcons (86-83-68--237, +27) (playing as an individual)

Mata de la Barata Barcons, competing as an individual and not figuring in the team scoring, fired a 68 in the third round, the best single round score by any Triton over the two-day event. It was also a career best for the junior, who was playing in his first collegiate tournament since March of 2020.

UC San Diego had two freshmen in the lineup in Hanz and Lee. Hanz logged a 72 in the third round, the second-best score for the Tritons.

Also in the 14-team field along were Cal State Fullerton (Big West), California Baptist (WAC), Grand Canyon (WAC), Idaho (Big Sky), Loyola Marymount (West Coast), North Dakota State (Summit), Oakland (Horizon), Pacific (West Coast), Sacramento State (Big Sky), UC Irvine (Big West), UC San Diego (Big West), UC Santa Barbara (Big West), Utah Valley (WAC), and Washington State (Pac-12).

Loyola Marymount won the overall team championship. The Lions finished 12-over par with an 852, shooting rounds of 300, 282, and 270. The next closest team was Washington State, 25 strokes behind in second place. Idaho placed third, just one stroke back of WSU.

LMU owned the top three spots on the individual leader board. Gavin Cohen was the medalist as the lone player to finish below par with a 1-under 209 (71-69-69). Teammates Riley Lewis (76-73-65--214, +4) and Cameron Meeks (75-70-69--214, +4) tied for second place.

The Lions came away with a trifecta of titles, also winning the All-Five Team Championship. Unique to The Joust, the award goes to the team with the lowest combined score of all five of its players each round. For a regular team win, only the scores of the top four players are utilized each round.

UC San Diego was coming off a seventh-place finish at the Orange County Collegiate Classic, Feb. 8-9 at Coto de Caza.

TRITON TIDBITS
• It was the first tournament of the 2020-21 season for juniors Ethan Chen and Sergi Mata de la Barata Barcons as well as sophomore Blake Iwaisako
• It was the first time in Iwaisako's career that he played at the No. 1 position for the Tritons
• UC San Diego's 296 in Tuesday's third round was its best round of the season thus far
• This was the second tournament that UC San Diego played in as an NCAA Division I team
• Cal State Fullerton, California Baptist, Grand Canyon, and UC Irvine joined UC San Diego in the field at the Orange County Collegiate Classic two weeks ago

UP NEXT
Additional events will be added to the Tritons' 2021 schedule as soon as they are confirmed.

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About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program began a new era in 2020 as a member of the Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions III and II and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 37 have earned prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 91 percent, one of the highest rates among institutions at all divisions.