Feb. 28, 2007

Pensacola, Fla. - Junior Matt Cook shot two-under in the third and final round of the West Florida Argonaut Invitational on Tuesday, rallying to finish 16th to lead Western Carolina to a sixth-place finish in its spring season opener at the par 72, 6,815-yard Pensacola Country Club. The Catamounts carded 881 as a team over the three-round event marking the sixth-best, 54-hole score in school history.

Virginia Commonwealth shot even par (864) to edge Old Dominion by two strokes (866), with Wichita State (868), West Florida (870) and Belmont rounding out the top five.

Cook shot 218 (73-75-70), which is tied for the 18th-best three-round score in WCU history, with senior Tripp Morrow firing a four-over, 220, bouncing back from an opening round 76 to shoot one-under 71 in the second round and 73 in the third to finish tied for 20th.

Transfer Andres Cuenca placed tied for 33rd (223), with freshman Ricky Stout two positions back in 35th. Stout finished the tournament ranked 10th in par 3 scoring at one over (3.08). Western's first-round leader, freshman Michael Chapin, slipped into a tie for 56th with a three-round total of 231.

Western returns to action on March 6-7 at the Campbell University Hargrove Davis Intercollegiate to be played at the Keith Hills Country Club in Buies Creek, N.C.

Fin.  School                   Scores
  1   Virginia Commonwealth    289  286  289 - 864         E
  2   Old Dominion Univ.       290  282  294 - 866        +2
  3   Wichita State Univ.      296  285  287 - 868        +4
  4   West Florida, U. of      295  286  289 - 870        +6
  5   Belmont University       299  282  298 - 879       +15
  6   Western Carolina         294  293  294 - 881       +17
  7   Radford University       299  290  293 - 882       +18
  8   Samford University       298  294  294 - 886       +22
  9   Winthrop University      291  299  297 - 887       +23
 10   Eastern Kentucky         291  307  299 - 897       +33
 11   Liberty University       298  299  306 - 903       +39
 12   Drake University         300  301  303 - 904       +40
 13   James Madison Univ.      303  306  306 - 915       +51
 14   George Mason Univ.       317  306  307 - 930       +66
 15   Towson University        313  313  306 - 932       +68
Western Carolina Individuals
16-t  Matt Cook        73  75  70 - 218   +2
20-t  Tripp Morrow     76  71  73 - 220   +4
33-t  Andres Cuenca    74  74  75 - 223   +7
35-t  Ricky Stout      75  73  76 - 224   +8
56-t  Michael Chapin   72  80  79 - 231  +15