October 11, 2004

All-American Shane Prante led the fourth-ranked Saints to a commanding victory over Concordia University and Pacific Lutheran University in a triangular match played at Tumwater Valley Golf Club on Wednesday. The Saints scorers combined for 271 strokes at 17-under-par while the Cavaliers and Lutes followed far behind with identical scores of 303 at 15-over.

Prante scorched the course with a seven-under score of 65 to take individual honors as the Saints claimed the top four spots on the leader board. Jared Bouchey's four-under 68 followed while Kris Swanson and Chris Westrum both shot 69 at three-under to tie for third.

The official NCAA scoring service, Golfstat, continues to rank Saint Martin's in the fourth nationally behind three regional rivals: Hawaii-Hilo, Western Washington, and UC-San Diego. Prante is currently ranked second among Division II individual golfers with a scoring average of 70 even. He trails Luke Bennett of Western Washington at 69.86 and is listed 16th among all college golfers. Swanson is currently listed 16th in Division II with an average of 71.5.

NCAA Division II National Rankings

Team                     Adjusted Scoring Avg.
1 Hawaii-Hilo                  70.86
2 Western Washington     71.56
3 UC San Diego               72.15
4 St. Martin's College     72.87
5 CSU-Stanislaus             73.03
6 CSU-Monterey Bay        73.11
7 Grand Canyon Univ.      73.66
8 South Carolina-Aiken    73.52
9 West Florida                75.06
10 Valdosta St. U.           73.04

Mark McGreevy, Sports Information Director
Email contact: SMC Athletics
(360) 438-4328