Guilford's Latimer Wins West Region Invitational
ROUND ROCK, Texas (4/7/09) - Guilford College junior Peter Latimer won his first medalist title of the season and helped the Quakers place fourth at the West Region Invitational Tuesday at the Terravista Golf Club. Latimer shot a two-over-par 74 and finished with a three-round 218, one stroke better than Mitchell Fedorka of the University of La Verne and Davis Dewald of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
La Verne, ranked second in this week's NCAA Division III Golfstat.com Rankings, posted the low team scored in two of the three rounds and claimed the team title by seven strokes over the University of Redlands. The Leopards placed three individuals in the top 10 of the 78-man field and shot 295 in Tuesday's third and final round to clinch their second straight title. The University of Texas at Tyler also shot 295 Tuesday and placed third with 912. Guilford finished six strokes ahead of the University of Texas at Dallas (316-307-300).
Latimer (right), who entered the day with a two-shot lead over Tain Lee of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges, made 10 birdies over 54 holes for his third college title. His birdie on the par-five 16th hole proved the difference as Fedorka and Dewald played the final three holes at even-par while Latimer was one under.
Teammate Brian Creghan climbed two spots into seventh-place Tuesday with by shooting 74, which gave him nine-over 225 for the tournament. The finish marked his fifth top-10 effort of the season. Other Guilford results included Burton Wood (81-79-77-237, T32nd), freshman Jeff Boyan (85-79-73-237, T32nd) and freshman Dusty Roberts 87-86-78-251, 64th).
Eight of the teams are ranked among the top-25 squads in the Golf World/Nike Golf Division III Coaches' Poll, including seventh-ranked Guilford. La Verne is ranked eighth in the poll, UT-Tyler is ninth and Redlands is 10th.
Guilford returns to action Apr. 18-20 at the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Championships at the Bay Creek Golf Club in Cape Charles, Va.