Steffen Deetjen
Staff Writer
This past week, the Dons were away in Scottsdale, Arizona competing in the Desert Mountain Intercollegiate. It was a tough two days for the Dons due to weather conditions on Friday and exemplary play from other teams but the Dons managed to pull through in the end.
After the first 36 holes on Friday the Don found themselves in sixth place. The Dons put together rounds of 303, 296 and 599. They were 23 over-par with only 18 holes left to play on Saturday. The Dons trailed behind first-place Oregon by 16 strokes after the Ducks had played rounds of 297 and 286 on the Outlaw Course.
USF was well paced by junior Sebastian Crookall-Nixon, who shot a round of 69 and 71 in extremely difficult conditions. At four-under 140, Crookall- Nixon was tied for second place with Oregon player Thomas Lin going into Saturday. Crookall-Nixon had a nice morning round starting off with six birdies and ended up with a score 69. In his afternoon round, he was three-under as well as six-under for the tournament before giving two strokes back. At the end of the day he settled for a one-under 71.
With Crookall-Nixon leading the Dons in scoring, USF had a good pace going into Saturday. The end results of Saturday gave USF eighth-place in a 12-team event after scoring a final 305(+17) which left USF at 907 for the 54-hole event. Oregon won the event first-place with an overall score of 861(-3). Crookall-Nixon played exceptionally well considering the windy conditions he had to play in and ended up placing third along with Oregon player Thomas Lin. This was one of the best finishes that Nixon has had in his career.
In addition to Crookall-Nixon a few other players had a good showing at the tournament. Freshman Mathias Wentjarvi placed tied for 45th at 233(+13) following a final round of 81. Senior Jobim Carlos placed 51st at 235(+19) with a following final round of 74.
USF will return for another match on March 27 when the Dons join the field at The Goodwin hosted by Stanford.
Photo credit: Dons Athletics
