Riverside Reclaims Conference Lead Heading Into Championship

The Riverside City College Tigers reclaimed the top spot in the Orange Empire Conference standings this week after edging Cypress College by one stroke to win the final conference match of the regular-season.  The Tigers (33-7) and Chargers (32-8) will now battle the rest of the conference field on Monday, May 1, at the one-day, 36-hole conference championship to be played at the Los Serranos Country Club courses in Chino Hills.

Playing this week's conference match at the El Camino Country Club course in Oceanside, Riverside sophomore Everett Najera led the Tigers with a 1-over-par 73 to share individual medalist honors with Cypress freshman Andrew Thompson.  Nick Bridge (74), Jordan Sams (76), Robby Melton (77) and Michael Herrera (77) helped Riverside to a 377 team score which ended up being just one stroke better than Cypress (378).  The Chargers made a run in recent weeks which pushed them to the top of the conference standings heading into this week and will be in a great position to challenge Riverside at the conference finals.  George Bris (75), David Marris (76), Dylan Hall (77) and Matt Rafter (77) contributed to this week's score.

Saddleback (395) held off Orange Coast (396) and Mt. San Antonio (396) to take third place on the El Camino course.  Jake Elliott posted a 74 to pace the Gauchos while Austin Briggs (75) and Jackson Blogg (77) were not far behind.  Orange Coast was led by Josh McCollum (76) and Jeremy Dorff (77) and needed to utilize the sixth golfer to edge past Mt. San Antonio in a tiebreaker for fourth-place points.  Justin Collins (OCC) posted an 83 which beat out Curtis Ashton's (MSAC) 88.  Mt. San Antonio was in position to challenge Orange Coast thanks to a pair of 75's from James Hochsprung and Cole Albert. 

All six Orange Empire Conference teams will compete in the conference championship on Monday (May 1) which will count as two conference matches.  The conference team champion will be determined, as well as the individual champion and the all-conference selections.   Najera is averaging 71.3 strokes per round and currently has a comfortable 13-stroke lead over the rest of the pack.  The Cypress foursome of Hall (73.1), Rafter (73.9), Thomson (74.1) and Bris (74.3) are within eight strokes of each other while Riverside's Melton (74.4) and Orange Coast's Dorff (74.6) are next in line.   Bridge (Riverside), Briggs (Saddleback), and Collins (Orange Coast) are just one stroke behind Dorff and averaging 74.7 strokes per round.