Wallace & Taylor Lead UW To Pac-10 Title

The No. 5 ranked 'Dawgs' romped to a four-round total of 16-under (365-360-347-352 1424) par at the luxurious Seattle Golf Club, finishing ahead of Oregon University (1442), Arizona State (1456), Stanford (1457) and fifth place Oregon State (1464).

Pacing the Huskies to their fifth Pac-10 title in school history was Wallace, a UW junior from Langley, who at the age of 15 in 2004 became the youngest winner in the history of Canada's National Amateur championship. The only player to card all four rounds at par or better, Wallace shot (70-72-65-70) an 11-under 277 total to earn medalist honors by four-strokes.

"It feels great," said Wallace. "We worked so hard for this all year; I've been working hard myself trying to reach my goals and this was one of them. It's great."

"Winning the team title was our goal from the beginning. Winning the individual title is just a bonus."

Wallace etched his name in UW history alongside Erik Olson (2005) and Clint Names (1961) who won the individual title along with the team. He is the fourth Husky to win the Pac-10 individual championship -- O.D. Vincent also won it in 1988.

"I was definitely excited to get on the course today," said Wallace. "I was definitely feeling a little bit nervous, and it took me a little while to get to sleep last night. But it was more excitement than anything. It was a pretty comfortable lead, and to be able to come out of the gates and extend that lead was key."

Wallace had not won a tournament with the Huskies until today, but he finished second out of 87 in last week's U.S. Intercollegiate at Stanford, posting a final-round 63. He showed that was not a fluke at the Pac-10s, including a competition-record 65 in Tuesday's third round.

Finishing second in the individual standings, four shots behind his teammate, was UW junior Nick Taylor at (76-70-67-68---281) at 7-under. A collegiate winner four times this season---a UW record---Taylor, from Abbotsford, was the Canadian Amateur champion in 2007.

Taylor wasn't the only U of Washington player to finish in the top 10. Sophomore Tze Huang Choo was eighth at 1-under par, Junior Richard Lee finished in a tie for 11th place at 1-over while Chris Killmer was 24th and Jens Bracht was 38th.

Three Oregon University players finished among the top 10 in the field including reigning BC Amateur and Junior champion Eugene Wong of North Vancouver, who finished tied for ninth at (71 74 70 73---288) even par.

With the title, the Huskies earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals, and will learn Monday at which of the six sites they will play May 14-16. It was the fifth conference championship in program history, and the second in coach Matt Thurmond's eight-year tenure.

The Huskies look to be peaking at just the right time this season, winning their second consecutive tournament in dominating fashion. Two weeks ago, UW blew away the competition at the U.S. Intercollegiate, a tournament hosted by Stanford and included nine Pac-10 schools in the 17-team field They won by 15 strokes.

"It's a really special year with a special group of guys, and I think we're going to do some great things ahead," Thurmond said. "It doesn't surprise me the way they've played. They keep getting better and they keep working harder. And when we need to hit the big shots they always do."

Coming into the final round, the Huskies enjoyed an eight-stroke lead over the Ducks. Paired in twosomes with Oregon the final two days, Washington really shined, hitting shots when they needed to.

"We've got two teams ranked ahead of us - USC and Stanford - and a bunch of other good teams," Thurmond said. "This is the best conference in the country, for sure, and we've been holding our own. It's some impressive play."

Team Standings
1. Washington 365-360-347-352 1424
2. Oregon 366-363-350-363 1442
3. Arizona State 375-362-356-363 1456
4. Stanford 366-371-359-361 1457
5. Oregon State 364-371-361-368 1464
6. UCLA 371-378-365-352 1466
7. California 372-369-363-363 1467
8. USC 371-374-366-363 1474
9. Arizona 374-375-367-367 1483
10. Washington State 390-378-370-386 1524

Individual Standings
1 Darren Wallace, Washington 70 72 65 70---277 -11
2 Nick Taylor, Washington 76 70 67 68---281 -7
T3 Erik Flores, UCLA 73 73 70 67---283 -5
T3 Daniel Miernicki, Oregon, U. of 74 69 70 70 283 -5
5 John Murphy, California, U. of 69 74 69 72---284 -4
T6 Paul Peterson, Oregon State U. 71 73 72 69---285 -3
T6 Tarquin MacManus, Arizona 77 68 69 71---285 -3
8 Tze Huang Choo, Washington 73 74 68 72---287 -1
T9 Isaiah Telles, Oregon, U. of 74 71 70 73---288 E
T9 Eugene Wong, Oregon, U. of 71 74 70 73---288 E

T11 Richard Lee, Washington 75 73 71 70---289 +1
T16 Morten Madsen, Oregon State U. 73 72 72 74---291 +3
T31 Trent Sanders, Washington State U. 74 72 77 73---296 +8
T35 Diego Velasquez, Oregon State U. 79 74 71 73---297 +9
T38 Jens Bracht, Washington 77 73 76 72---298 +10
T38 Philip Bagdade, Arizona 71 77 75 75---298 +10
T38 Jack Dukeminier, Oregon, U. of 78 74 70 76---298 +10
T44 Alex Moore, Oregon State U. 77 78 68 77---300 +12
T44 Nick Grigsby, Washington State U. 76 77 71 76---300 +12
T49 Andrew Vijarro, Oregon, U. of 75 80 70 78---303 +15
51 Kevin Tucker, Washington State U. 81 73 72 80---306 +18
52 Austin Hurt, Washington State U. 80 77 74 76---307 +19
54 Jonnie Motomochi, Oregon State U. 73 83 80 76---312 +24
57 Nick Ellis, Washington State U. 80 79 76 82---317 +29
60 Paul Mitze,l Washington State U. 80 89 82 81---332 +44