VALENCIA, Calif. - The UC San Diego men's golf team held onto its fifth-place position and Davis McDowell finished eighth as the Bill Cullum Invitational wrapped up Tuesday at The Oaks Club of Valencia.

HOW IT HAPPENED
UC San Diego totaled a 872, 8-over par on the par-72, 7,110-yard course. Monday, the Tritons shot rounds of 293 and 286 to go along with Tuesday's 293. They came into today's final round in fifth place in the 10-team field.

McDowell tied for eighth with a 2-under 214. He fired rounds of 74, 69, and 71 and moved up two spots on the leader board as he was tied for 10th after Monday's 36 holes. 

Ethan Chen, playing as an individual and not counting in the team scoring, improved his placing by five positions, finishing in a tie for 26th. Jerry Wu had his best round Tuesday, a 71, to move up 15 spots into a tie for 31st. Likewise, Nathan Tseng carded a 71, his top round, to climb 15 spots into a tie for 35th.

TRITON RESULTS
T-8. Davis McDowell, -2 (74-69-71--214)
T-31. Jared Gross, +6 (74-68-80--222)
T-31. Jerry Wu, +6 (74-77-71--222)
T-35. Elliot Bunyaviroch, +7 (71-72-80--223)
T-35. Nathan Tseng, +7 (75-77-71--223)
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T-26. Ethan Chen, +4 (75-72-73--220)
T-49. Calvin Kong, +12 (70-74-84--228)
T-49. Davis Lee, +12 (80-75-73--228)

THE WINNERS
Host CSUN successfully defended its team title, coming in with a 12-under 852, just a single stroke in front of California Baptist. UC Irvine (-3) was third and Hawaii (-4) placed fourth. The foursome were the only teams to finish under par for the tournament.

CSUN's Felix Schrott defeated UCI Irvine's Darien Zhao in a one-hole playoff to win individual medalist honors. The duo finished 54 holes at 6-under par. Ty Griggs from UCLA and Josh Hu from UC Riverside tied for third at 5-under. In total, 13 players finished under par.

FROM HEAD COACH FRED HANOVER
"I'm really pleased with our progress. Jared had two good rounds Monday which included a hole-in-one. Davis was in contention again and has been consistently good thus far. Elliot had two good rounds Monday, while Nathan and Jerry played well today, which was huge since Jared and Elliot had tough rounds today. We are looking forward to having an entire tournament where we get four good scores each day. Overall, we are better than last year at this time and I'm looking forward to our progress the rest of the year."

TRITON TIDBITS
• Jared Gross cupped a hole-in-one on the par three, 188-yard 16th hole in Monday's second round.
• It was the 26th running of the tournament, which has been held every year since 1996.
• The Tritons also played in the event in 2021 and 2019.

UP NEXT
UC San Diego will next be in action Oct. 20-22 at the Visit Stockton Invitational at Stockton Golf & Country Club. It will be the team's final outing of the fall season.

The winter/spring season opens Feb. 13-14 at the Orange County Collegiate Classic at Coto de Caza Golf & Racquet Club.

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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 84 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 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.