April 20, 2003

STANFORD, Calif. - After coming close several times last year, junior Mark Warman (San Clemente, Calif./San Clemente HS) claimed the first individual title of his collegiate career by coming from two strokes back after the second round to earn medalist honors at the U.S. Intercollegiate. Warman (206, -7), who finished second on three different occasions in his all-MWC 2001-02 sophomore season, followed up his school- and course-record 62 in the second round with a final-round 73 to take a one-shot win.

Warman's performance, the third individual title of the season for an Aztec, sparked San Diego State to a third-place team finish in its final tune-up before the Mountain West Conference tournament. The Aztecs (851, -1) finished just a stroke out of second place and behind the two highest-ranked teams in the field - UCLA (No. 11 Golfweek/No. 5 Golfstat), which claimed the team title at 12-under 840, and No. 8/6 Oklahoma State, which SDSU led by two shots in second place after the second round.

SDSU (No. 34 Golfweek/No. 37 Golfstat) was still able to claim head-to-head wins over three higher-ranked teams from the Golfstat ratings - No. 28 UC Irvine (6th, 859), No. 31 California (11th, 873) and No. 36 Fresno State (4th, 853).

Warman's title is all the more impressive when considering the 90-golfer individual field he was up against. Warman (No. 182 Golfweek) defeated 31 of the nation's top 250-rated golfers according to Golfweek, 11 of them rated among the top 100 including No. 2 Hunter Mahan of Oklahoma State (4th, 208, -5) and No. 5 Nick Watney of Fresno State (15th, 213, E).

Joining Warman in the top 10 was sophomore Aaron Choi (San Diego, Calif./Torrey Pines HS), who registered his career best and the low Aztec score of the day with a 5-under 66. Choi finished in a tie for ninth place at 2-under 211, his best career result as a starter.

A final-round 74 dropped senior Brian Miller (Madras, Ore./Saddleback JC) into a 28th-place tie at 4-over 217, which he shared with five other golfers including senior Lars Johansson (Karlskrona, Sweden/Champansholam HS). Senior John Lieber (San Diego, Calif./Grossmont HS) took 85th place at 236.

SDSU begins play at the 2003 MWC Championship on May 1 in Oregon at the Sunriver Resort's Crosswater Course.

Final Results
U.S. Intercollegiate
Stanford G.C.            Stanford, CA
Dates: 04/19 - 04/20     (Today:04-20-2003)
Par:        71
Yardage:  6786

      Fin.   School                   Scores
         1   UCLA                     279  277  284    840       -12
         2   Oklahoma State U.        293  274  283    850        -2
         3   San Diego State U.       292  273  286    851        -1
         4   Fresno State Univ.       289  278  286    853        +1
         5   Oregon, U. of            274  294  288    856        +4
         6   UC-Irvine                284  283  292    859        +7
         7   Stanford University      289  287  288    864       +12
         8   Washington State U.      294  283  292    869       +17
         9   Long Beach State         285  295  290    870       +18
        10   Pacific, U. of the       287  283  302    872       +20
        11   California, U. of        300  285  288    873       +21
        12   San Jose State Univ.     291  297  287    875       +23
        13   San Francisco, U. of     293  291  293    877       +25
        14   Texas A&M University     296  297  298    891       +39
        15   San Diego, U. of         294  306  294    894       +42
        16   Santa Clara Univ.        304  291  307    902       +50

Top 10 Individuals
   Fin.   Name                   School       Scores
      1   Mark Warman            SanDiegoSt    71   62   73    206   -7

      2   John Ellis             Oregon        67   72   68    207   -6
          Jeff Coburn            UC-Irvine     66   67   74    207   -6

      4   Hunter Mahan           Okla. St.     70   65   73    208   -5
          John Merrick           UCLA          69   69   70    208   -5

      6   Ryan Carter            Fresno St.    71   68   70    209   -4
          Roy Moon               UCLA          65   66   78    209   -4

      8   Ryan Ressa             Wash. St.     72   66   72    210   -3

      9   Michael Wilson         California    72   69   70    211   -2
          Chad Spencer           Fresno St.    70   64   77    211   -2
          Aaron Choi             SanDiegoSt    74   71   66    211   -2

SDSU Individuals
        1   Mark Warman            SanDiegoSt    71   62   73    206   -7
        9   Aaron Choi             SanDiegoSt    74   71   66    211   -2
      T 28  Lars Johansson         SanDiegoSt    74   70   73    217   +4
      T 28  Brian Miller           SanDiegoSt    73   70   74    217   +4
        85  John Lieber            SanDiegoSt    74   83   79    236  +23