COX AND CHAN LEAD THUNDERBIRDS TO 2ND PLACE FINISH

The #3 ranked Thunderbirds finished 2nd (11 teams) this past weekend at the High Country Shootout in Ruidoso, NM.  The Tbirds were led by Sophomore Ryan Cox and Freshman Zhane Chan, both finsihing in the top 10 individually.  Cox fired rounds of 71, 71, 65 (-9) to finish 3rd while Chan shot rounds of 70, 73, 70 (-3), good for 10th individually.  This is the 2nd straight top 5 finish for Cox who leads the Tbirds with a 70.1 scoring average through two events.  Chan recorded his first top 10 finish in only his second event as a Thunderbird. 

Freshman Andrew Ni continued his solid play with a 19th place finish following rounds of 74, 72, 73 (+3).  Ni was coming off a 3rd place finish at the Farmers Insurance Samuel Proal Invitational in the Tbirds first event.  Freshman Harvey Hill finished 29th overall with rounds of 73, 76, 73 (+6) while Freshman Jack Waymark finished 36th with rounds of 77, 79, 68 (+8).  The Tbirds finished (-8) as a team, losing only to #2 ranked Midland College. 

Competing individually for NMJC were Sophomore Preston Ewing and Freshman Tyler Cox.  Ewing finished 51st with scores of 76, 81, 75 (+16) while Cox finished 63rd with rounds of 75, 81, 83 (+23). 

Head coach James Berry is pleased with the team's direction, "I thought the guys battled hard from start to finish.  Ryan got hot at the end with 4 birdies in his final 5 holes and Zhane was steady throughout.  Finishing 2nd in this event is great considering we didn't play our best team golf, but the guys aren't satisfied with that result.  We're motivated to improve and team chemsitry is very good so I'm excited to see how they progress moving forward." 

The Tbirds next event is the NJCAA National Championship Preview in Lubbock, TX (October 15th-17th).