Freshman Joshua Strong shot a pair of 75's at the season opening Point Conception Open hosted by Santa Barbara City College over Sunday and Monday. That put him in a tie for fifth place against some of the top teams across the State.
Freshman Joshua Strong shot a pair of 75's at the season opening Point Conception Open hosted by Santa Barbara City College over Sunday and Monday. That put him in a tie for fifth place against some of the top teams across the State.

Strong Showing for Owls at Opener

Lompoc, CA - The Citrus College Men's Golf team got a taste of what the 2017 season has in store for them to start the week when they participated in the annual Point Conception Open at La Purisima Golf Course. The Owls had a strong showing, especially for freshman Joshua Strong who posted a top five individual finish against some of the stiffest competition across the State.

Strong got things off on the right foot with a 75 on the opening day, good enough for 6th lowest on the opening day. Sophomore James Bragger was next in with a 80, while sophomore Justin Orona carded an 83. Another sophomore in Trevor Perry posted an 84, while freshman Maximiliano Garcia had the last scoring round with a 92. On the day Citrus had a team score of 414, tied for 6th place with defending State Champ Reedley College and just 15 strokes back of fourth place Palomar College.

On the second day, Strong proved to be extremely consistent with another round of 75. Bragger was also the same with an 80, while Perry cut four strokes off with an 80 himself, and Orona matched his first day 83. Rounding out the scoring was freshman Gabriel Sosa who bounced back from an opening day 93 and posted a 81. Strong would be the only Owl individual to finish inside the Individual Top 20 by finishing tied for fifth.

As a team, Citrus finished with a second day score of 399 for a two-day total of 813. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to keep pace with Reedley who was eight strokes better than then Owls on the second day, but it kept Citrus well in front of the other five teams who competed throughout the weekend.

Citrus will be back in action this Wednesday when they participate in the OEC Classic hosted by Cypress College. Tee-time is set for 9:00 AM at the Los Serranos Country Club North Course in Chino Hills.