UTEP Golf: Miners Win First Team Tournament Since 2005

Las Cruces, N.M.- The UTEP men’s golf team took first place at the Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate on Tuesday. It is the Miners first tournament title since April of 2005, when they captured the championship of the Wyoming Cowboy Classic.

UTEP, which had a six-stroke lead on second-place Lamar through 36 holes on Monday, posted its low round of the tournament and season (282) on Tuesday. The Miners finished with a 54-hole total of 854 (284-288-282) and were the only team to shoot under par in the final round.

“We’ve had our chances over the past couple of years to win a tournament, but this group finally broke through and capitalized on the opportunity,” Lieberwirth said. “I was really impressed with how we did it. We had a lead yesterday and we went out and extended it by even more. I’m super proud of how we played.”

Grand Canyon University finished in second place at 871, 17 strokes behind UTEP.

Junior Frederik Dreier placed second (71-71-70-212), three strokes behind the individual champion, Mans Berglund from Lamar. Dreier has been UTEP’s top-finisher in two out of the three tournaments played this year and it was his seventh career top-10 finish.

“We’ve practiced really hard the past couple of weeks and we have motivated each other,” Dreier noted. “We’re all really happy and it is huge to win a tournament by a margin of 17 strokes.”

Freshman Andreas Sorenson ended up solely in fourth place with a one-over par 214 (70-72-72). Charlie Corner (73-72-72-217) catapulted himself seven spots during the final round to work his way into a tie for 11th place.

Prescott Mann ended up tied for 21st at seven-over par (70-73-77-220). Nicklas Pihl (79-78-68-225), who struggled on day one, rebounded with a career-low score of 68 to advance 35 spots and place tied for 43rd.

On the individual side of things, Ben Getman (73-78-76-227) finished in 54th place, Jose Romero (74-71-83-228) ended up in 59th, Evan Macias (75-76-78-229) placed 65th and Settavut Paradee (78-78-80-236) registered in at 76th.

The Miners will have a quick turnaround as they will host their only home tournament of the year this Friday through Sunday at the Butterfield Trail Golf Club.