Meek earns first NCAA Division I golf tourney win

Peterborough’s Sam Meek earned his first tournament win on the NCAA Division I golf circuit on Sunday.

Meek shot a three-round, oneunder 215 to edge out a University of Nevada Wolf Pack teammate at the El Macero Classic in Davis, California.

Meek’s scores of 69-73-73 helped Nevada claim its first team title of the season. Nevada had all four of its counting scorers place inside the top 25 in the 81-player field.

Meek, who transferred this semester from Southern Illinois University, won the first individual title of his collegiate career. He and his teammate, the eventual runner-up, Grant Booth battled back and forth for the lead all afternoon long.

The individual crown essentially came down to No. 18 where Meek made birdie to close his round and Booth bogeyed his final hole to finish one stroke behind at even-par 216 overall.

Meek, a Crestwood grad and Kawartha Golf and Country Club member, carded one of the lowest scores of the day with a 1-over 73, while Booth posted a 3-over 75. Meek is the Pack’s first individual winner since Kevin Lucas won the Pacific Invitational in the fall of 2011.

“I’m so happy for this group of guys,” stated University of Nevada head coach Jacob Wilner on the university’s website. “They’ve played great all year and to get a team win in a quality field is amazing.”

The victory marks the first team win since the Jackrabbit Invitational last year.

From a historical perspective, this is the 30th team win in program history and the first time the Pack has won tournaments in back-to-back seasons since 200809 and 2009-10. It also marks the third team win under Wilner’s direction.

Sunday’s final round was not exactly an easy path to the title with windy playing conditions at El Macero Country Club, but the team grinded out the round to still win by 10 strokes. The Wolf Pack combined for a team score of 304 in the final round but none of the 13 teams in the field shot better than a 293. For the tournament, the Pack finished at 15over par, 10 shots better than the runner-up team in No. 24 UCLA. Nevada also bested No. 12 Texas Tech by 12 shots and No. 31 TCU by 14.