San Diego State storms back to capture Mountain West title

TUCSON, Ariz. — Led by Xander Schauffele and Ryann Ree, San Diego State came back from a 11-shot deficit to win the Mountain West Conference Championship by a stroke over the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. UNLV, who led Nevada by eight entering the final round, shot three-over on Sunday while the Aztecs fired nine-under 275, including 67s from Schauffele and Ree. "This is a special group of players," said Aztec head coach Ryan Donovan. "They played for each other today and their resiliency paid off." It was still a wire-to-wire individual win for UNLV senior Kurt Kitayama despite shooting one-over 72 in his final round. The Chico, Calif. native opened with back-to-back 65s, helping him win the title by two shots over Schauffele. The Running Rebels should still have a good shot at making it to NCAA Regionals with their second-place finish, which came by six shots over Nevada and seven over New Mexico.