BYU finishes third at the Barona Collegiate Cup

LAKESIDE, Calif. -- The No. 21 ranked BYU men's golf team captured a third-place finish at the Barona Collegiate Cup Tuesday. This marks BYU's fourth top-5 finish of the year.

After the first round BYU trailed first place Colorado State by 15 strokes, but rebounded to shoot a tournament-low 274 in the second round. The Cougars scored a 283 in the final round to finish at 19-under-par.

CSU held onto its first place spot scoring 273-282-281--836 (-28). UTEP finished in second place at 284-280-278--842 (-22) and BYU followed in third place at 288-274-283--845 (-19).

"We didn't get off to a good start, but we made a run and had a lot of bright spots," head coach Bruce Brockbank said. "CSU played great and was a hard team to catch."

BYU's top finishers were junior Todd Miller (74-67-68--209) and sophomore Oscar Alvarez (72-69-68--209) who both tied for ninth-place at seven-under-par.

Miller, who recently returned home from an LDS mission, has been a boost for the Cougars this year with his consistent play recording three top-15 finishes.

"I'm still getting back into the tournament mode," junior Todd Miller said. "My goal has been to shoot under par."

Freshman Clay Ogden, who competed as an individual, tied for 18th place (72-72-68--212) to finish four-under-par.

Sophomore Clay Bingham (70-72-74--216) and junior Greg Machtaler (73-70-73--216) tied for 35th place to shoot even par and freshman Jake Ellison (73-68-76--217) finished tied for 41st place.

The Cougars competed on the par-72 course against a field of 17 teams including UNC Greensboro (No. 12), New Mexico (No. 20), Colorado State (No. 24), San Diego State (No. 32), Texas A&M (No. 35), UTEP (No. 47), Nevada, Hawaii, Denver, Ohio State, Washington State, Louisville, Fresno State, Wichita State, Alabama-Birmingham and the University of San Diego.

The individual top finisher at the Barona was UTEP's Chris Baryla who finished 17-under-par at 69-63-67--199.

The team will compete at the Prestige, its final tournament of the year, on Nov. 3-4 in Palm Springs, Calif.

Results
3   Brigham Young Univ.               288  274  283    845
      T  9    Oscar Alvarez            72   69   68    209
      T  9    Todd Miller              74   67   68    209
      T 35    Clay Bingham             70   72   74    216
      T 35    Greg Machtaler           73   70   73    216
      T 41    Jake Ellison             73   68   76    217
Fin.School                   Scores  
1   Colorado State Univ.     273  282  281    836       -28 
2   Texas El Paso, U. of     284  280  278    842       -22 
3   Brigham Young Univ.      288  274  283    845       -19 
4   New Mexico, U. of        276  290  284    850       -14 
5   Texas A&M University     293  275  286    854       -10 
    UAB                      288  283  283    854       -10 
7   Fresno State             289  282  284    855        -9 
8   N. Car.- Greensboro      294  280  282    856        -8 
    Wichita State Univ.      283  286  287    856        -8 
10  Ohio State Univ.         287  281  289    857        -7 
    Denver, U. of            279  294  284    857        -7 
12  Washington State U.      285  294  286    865        +1 
13  San Diego State U.       300  279  289    868        +4 
14  Hawaii, Univ. of         297  289  289    875       +11 
15  Louisville, U. of        288  290  298    876       +12 
16  Nevada, Univ. of         297  293  294    884       +20 
17  San Diego State JV       312  303  294    909       +45 
18  San Diego, U. of         306  311  303    920       +56
 
Fin. Top 20 Players         School       Scores  
1    Chris Baryla           UTEP          69   63   67   199
2    Jimmy Cunningham       Denver        68   69   65   202
3    Mathew Kodama          Hawaii        68   67   69   204
4    Martin Laird           Col. St.      68   69   69   206
5    Chad Spencer           Fresno St.    68   70   69   207
     John May               Wichita St    69   69   69   207
7    Nolan Martin           Col. St.      69   70   69   208
     Nick Baker             NC Greensb    75   67   66   208
9    Chris Cousins          UAB           65   74   70   209
     Kevin Hall             Ohio State    72   69   68   209
     Oscar Alvarez          BYU           72   69   68   209
     Jesse Schulte          Wichita St    68   70   71   209
     Todd Miller            BYU           74   67   68   209
14   Madalitso Muthiya      New Mexico    69   71   70   210
     John Hayes             Col. St.      68   72   70   210
     Rufus Brijalba         UTEP          68   72   70   210
17   Charlie Beljan         New Mexico    67   74   70   211
18   Andy Bare              NC Greensb    72   71   69   212
     Stephen Reed           Texas A&M     74   68   70   212
     James Love             Denver        68   75   69   212
     Ryan Carter            Fresno St.    69   73   70   212
     Clark Brown            UAB           72   69   71   212
     Kevin McAlpine         Col. St.      68   71   73   212
    *Clay Ogden             BYU           72   72   68   212
* played as an individual