UTPA men's golf captures home tourney

EDINBURG — The University of Texas-Pan American men’s golf team overcame a four-stroke deficit to win the five-team UTPA Golf Classic on Tuesday at Los Lagos in Edinburg.

It was a surge that ended in a six-stroke win for the Broncs. Kevin Kirakossian’s three-round score of 223 led the Broncs and was good enough for third individually.

Broncs coach Santiago De Larrea said the team was not pleased with its performance leading into the final day.

“We were pretty upset,” De Larrea said. “I think the pressure at playing at home was tough for the team. Armen (Kirakossian) came through with the best score on the final day. Even though we won, we were not pleased with how we did it.”

The Broncs crowded the fifth-place spot as Armen Kirakossian, Brandon Reyna (Sharyland) and Orlando Moreno (Donna) each shot 225.

It is the last tournament for the Broncs until Feb. 21. De Larrea is not worried about the layoff.

“Most of the time it’s like this,” De Larrea said. “Sometimes it’s good because it gives you time to reflect on the mistakes you made in the fall semester and gives you time to correct things. Sometimes the guys are more hungry when they don’t have as many tournaments.”

On the women’s side, the Lady Broncs finished second as a team and had Majo Camey finish second individually. Houston Baptist won the team title.

It was the first tournament hosted by UTPA since a men’s tourney at Tierra Santa in Weslaco in 1999. The Broncs and Lady Broncs will also play host to the Great West Conference tournament at Los Lagos on April 17.

Santiago said the programs are working to make the UTPA Golf Classic a bigger and better tournament.

“We are trying to build-up the tournament again,” De Larrea said. “It was a little tough to set it up right now for the first year. It seems like all the contacts were lost there. This is my second year so I’m trying to rebuild everything.”

UTPA NOTES: The men’s cross country team is ranked No. 13 regionally by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Division I Coaches Association. The team finished fifth at the Great West Conference Championships last week in New York and will compete in the South Central Regional Championship on Nov. 14 at Baylor.

Peter Rasmussen covers UTPA athletics for Valley Freedom Newspapers. You can recah him at (956) 683-4448