No. 28 Chapman takes on tough field at SCIAC Championships

ORANGE, Calif. – The No. 28-ranked Chapman University men's golf team will travel to Oak Valley Golf Club for the 2014 SCIAC Championships beginning Sunday and play through Tuesday. The Panthers currently sit in fifth place in the conference standings and are vying for the SCIAC's automatic qualifier into the NCAA Championships in May.

Chapman will have to overtake four other nationally-ranked programs within the conference for first place: No. 1 University of Redlands, No. 8 University of La Verne, No. 13 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges and No. 15 Cal Lutheran University.

Redlands leads the way this season with four tournament victories, but currently sits in third place in the conference scoring, three strokes behind first-place La Verne. Just one stroke separates La Verne and second-place Claremont. Chapman enters the 54-hole tournament trailing by 51 total strokes.

Freshman Bryan Wise will lead the Panthers, ranked in the top 40 amongst Division III individuals. He would need to lower his season scoring average (currently 75.1) to near or below 74 to have a chance at qualifying for Division III Championships. Wise has finished in the top 20 in all six tournaments he's played in this season.

Chapman seniors Josh Hurst (77.0 scoring average) and Rohan Bahri (78.0), as well as junior Giovanni Chiappano (77.8) have each earned top 10 finishes this season and are also expected to contend at Oak Valley. Juniors Steven Meyer (79.0) and Kent Paisley (79.3) round out the Panthers' six-man team.

Tee times for Sunday's first round are set for noon and then move to 7:30 a.m. for rounds two and three on Monday and Tuesday.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

SCIAC Championship Website & Live Scoring: http://www.goredlands.com/sports/mgolf/2013-14/files/14SCIAC_Golf_Champs

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