U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, COLO. - UC San Diego men's golf turned in a strong performance at the Falcon Invitational, finishing seventh with Kyle Dougherty placing sixth as the tournament wrapped up Monday. 

In addition, Triton Akira Isayama finished fourth in the separate individual tournament.

Air Force hosted the three-day, 22-team, 110-player tournament at Eisenhower Golf Club.

The team competition was played on the Blue Course and the individual tourney was on the Silver Course.

HOW IT HAPPENED
UC San Diego got off to a slow start in Colorado Springs, shooting 17-over par on the par-72, 7,541-yard Blue Course.

Coming into Sunday's second round in 17th place, the Tritons shot eight-under, blasting up the leader board into seventh.

Round three saw UC San Diego go two-under, finishing seven over for the tournament.

Colorado State led wire-to-wire, finishing 14-under par. Utah State was second, nine strokes behind the Rams.

Dougherty was consistent across three rounds. He finished three-under with rounds of 72, 70, and 71.

Justin Gill collected a top-20 finish for UC San Diego, placing 19th at even par.

The winner was Matthew Wilkinson of Colorado State at 10-under, three strokes better than his nearest competitor.

Isayama shot 69-70 (-5) over the first two rounds of the individual tournament and was tied for third. He shot 73 (+1) today among the 50 golfers in the field.

The winner of the indy tournament was Colorado State's Roy Williamson at five-under.

TRITON TEAM RESULTS
T-6. Kyle Dougherty, -3 (72-70-71--213)
T-19. Justin Gill, Even (77-67-72--216)
T-43. Davis McDowell, +6 (79-70-73-222)
T-51. Francis Catalano, +8 (80-73-71--224)
T-51. Nathan Tseng, +8 (77-75-72--224)

TRITON INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
4. Akira Isayama, -4 (69-70-73--212)

FRED SAID
"Kyle had his first top-10 and Justin had his first top-20. The course was very challenging. The weather in round one was cooler and more windy than the practice round and we didn't adjust well.

The last two days were closer to the practice round weather and we did a good job in rounds two and three.

We have a talented, hard-working group and they will continue to improve and eventually compete for titles."

TRITON TIDBITS
• Eisenhower's Blue Course is 7,541 yards long while the Silver Course plays 6,510.
• This is the second-straight season that UC San Diego has played in this event. The Tritons finished 11th of 24 teams in 2023.
• There were five Big West teams in the field - CSUN (tie-18), UC Davis (3), UC Riverside (17), UC San Diego (7), and UC Santa Barbara (6).

UP NEXT
The Tritons are off next week. The Stockton Invitational will be their next tournament, Oct. 13-15 at Stockton Golf & Country 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.