Nevada runs away with Pacific Invite title in final round

STOCKTON, Calif. (Oct. 28, 2018) – Make it two in a row for the Nevada men’s golf team. The Wolf Pack won back-to-back events Saturday for the first time in program history when they took home the Visit Stockton Pacific Invitational.

Nevada had a program-record 22-under 262 in the final round at Stockton Country Club to leap-frog BYU and win the title by 12 shots. Nevada outscored every other team by at least 12 shots in the final round. The Pack was 38 under for the tournament, while BYU was 26 under. Nevada led the entire 16-team field with 68 birdies during the week.

A big part of the Pack's massive day came from Joey Vrzich, who carded a program-, course- and career-low round of 61. He began the day in a tie for 18th place individually and climbed 16 spots to earn a runner-up finish at 12-under. He was four shots behind individual winner Peter Kuest of BYU.

Vrzich’s teammate Sam Harned was in the hunt for the individual title all tournament long and finished at a career-best 11-under par to earn a career-best third-place finish. Harned birdied the closing two holes on Saturday.

As for BYU, the Stockton title would have been its second in four fall starts. The Cougars never finished outside the top 4 this fall. For Kuest, it’s a second fall victory, and his 16-under total is his lowest ever 54-hole total.

“It all went well today. I had a lot of really good looks at birdie and didn’t make many mistakes,” said Kuest, whose grandfather passed away the week before the tournament.

Information from BYU Athletics, Nevada Athletics used in this report