SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State men's golf team resumes its busy stretch this week when it travels to the desert for the National Invitational Tournament, March 18-19, in Tucson, Ariz. The two-day, 54-hole event is set to get underway Monday and will be contested on the par-72, 7,200-yard Catalina Course at OMNI Tucson National Golf Club.
The Aztecs, who are positioned at No. 57 in the latest Golfstat rankings, will battle 10 other top 75 schools at the 15th annual event, including No. 4 Arizona State, No. 5 Oklahoma, No. 7 USC, No. 32 UNLV, No. 47 Iowa State, No. 49 and tournament host Arizona, No. 52 Colorado State, No. 62 Utah, No. 69 New Mexico and No. 75 Colorado. In addition, San Diego State will be afforded an early look at another Mountain West member in Wyoming, while North Texas, San Diego, UTEP and Washington State round out the list of competing squads.
The Aztecs will be paired with Colorado State for Monday's first two rounds, which commence in a shotgun start at 8 a.m. MST/PDT. A live scoring link courtesy of Golfstat will be available on GoAztecs.com.
For SDSU's desert excursion, head coach Ryan Donovan has penciled in the starting lineup of Christian Banke (Danville, Calif.), Puwit Anupansuebsai (Nakhon Phanom, Thailand), Joey Moore (Billings, Mont.), Newport Laparojkit (Montebello, Calif.) and Leo Oyo (Tokyo, Japan).
The Aztecs are coming off a fifth-place effort at their own Lamkin San Diego Classic last week, where Anupansuebsai posted his highest career finish after tying for eighth out of 92 competitors at 1-under 215. In addition, Banke tied for 16th with a 1-over 217 as an individual golfer, while Oyo tied for 20th at 3-over 219.
Anupansuebsai leads the Scarlet and Black contingent this week with a 72.87 scoring average for the season, followed closely by Moore (73.00), Laparojkit (73.17) and Banke (73.43).
San Diego State has not competed at the Arizona National Invitational Tournament since the spring of 2015, when Xander Schauffele tied for second out of 83 participants with a 4-under 212 to earn his third straight Mountain West Men's Golfer of the Week honor. The former Aztec All-American also tied for sixth at the event in 2014 with a 6-under 210.
SDSU has experienced previous success at the Arizona NIT, capturing the team title in 2012 after recording a collective 5-under 859 to clip UNLV (-4) by one shot. The Aztecs also boasted the individual champion that year, as J.J. Spaun led the pack with a combined 15-under 201 on rounds of 67-66-68.
UNLV is the defending team champion after shooting a scintillating 50-under 814 last year, highlighted by Shintaro Ban, who claimed medalist honors with a 16-under 200. However, Ban has completed his eligibility, leaving Arizona State's Chun An Yu, who tied for second at 14-under, as the top returning individual. Also back in the mix are UNLV's Jack Trent (6th, -12) Arizona's Trevor Werbylo (T-9th, -10) and Iowa State's Tripp Kinney (11th, -9).
Following the Arizona National Invitational Tournament, San Diego State heads to the Pacific Northwest to compete in the Duck Invitational, March 25-26, at Emerald Valley Golf Club in Creswell, Ore.