HOME OF BULLDOG MEN'S GOLF - 24 SCIAC Championships

Junior Ross Canavan (Redlands, CA) shot a 70 on the fourth and final day of the 2009 NCAA Division III Men’s Golf Championships in Port St. Lucie, FL, at the PGA Golf Club’s par-72, 7,123-yard Dye Course, leading the No. 9 University of Redlands men’s golf team to a ninth-place finish in the 36-team field.

The Bulldogs blazed through the 18 holes in 301 strokes and traded blows with No. 6 Skidmore College (NY) throughout the round. Skidmore wound up in a tie for 10th. Redlands’ team of Canavan, sophomore Alex Hedlund (Arlington, WA), senior J.C. Riter (Portland, OR) and sophomore Scott Peña (Encinitas, CA) accumulated a 1,207-stroke total throughout the event and finished three strokes ahead of Skidmore and Nebraska Wesleyan University.

Canavan, who held Redlands’ second-lowest total throughout the tournament heading into the final round, shot 2 under par and finished in a tie for 15th (296). His fourth-round score proved to be the second-best among those competing on Saturday as Olafur Loftsson of No. 5 Oglethorpe University was the lone golfer to shoot better.

Hedlund struggled on the final day of competition, dropping back to 30th on the leaderboard after carding an 80. He tallied 300 strokes throughout the event, which ranked second on the team.

Staying consistent, Riter matched his Friday score, firing off a 78. He turned in scores of 76, 77, 78 and 78 in his four rounds, totaling 309 strokes.

Peña offered the Maroon and Gray’s second-best showing on the afternoon, equaling his first-round score of 75 to wind up with a cumulative tally of 311.

Finally, sophomore Todd Steller (Poway, CA) rounded out the Bulldog golfers present with a fourth-round mark of 78 and supplied a 316-stroke total on the tournament.

Oglethorpe’s quartet shot an impressive 289 on Saturday and claimed the national team title with a cumulative score of 1,164. Loftsson tied the No. 3 University of La Verne’s Mitchell Fedorka for the top score at the end of the tournament at -3. Fedorka, who had held at least a share of the lead throughout the event, fell to Loftsson in a playoff, which gave Loftsson the individual championship.

The NCAA Division III Championships occurred from May 13-16 at the PGA Village in Port St. Lucie, FL, on both the Ryder Course and the Dye Course. After Thursday’s round, the field was cut from 36 teams to 23.

Redlands competed in its 14th-ever national championship, earning one of two at-large bids. Last year, the Bulldogs finished as runners-up to St. John’s University (MN). The Maroon and Gray has ended up among the top 10 teams in the country six of the past seven years, four of which were as national runners-up.