Western Washington University dominated the first six Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championships, winning each year and often by significant margins - 28 shots in 2010, then 20, 26 and 16 the next three years. In 2014, however, the team led after day one but slipped to fourth with a disastrous final round of 311 at the Coeur d'Alene Resort Course in Coeur d'Alene, ID.The 2014-15 season began on a high note for the Vikings with a win at St. Martin's, and it progressed reasonably well with three more top five finishes in the next six tournaments. But the team has come off the rails the last couple of weeks, finishing 14th at both the Western New Mexico Invitational and Cal State Stanislaus Invitational.
Northwest Nazarene will be the defending champion in Idaho next week after winning a one-hole playoff against St. Martin's 12 months ago. Also competing will be Montana State Billings and Simon Fraser University.
The Vikings’ scoring leader heading into the tournament is Chris Hatch who was announced today as the winner of GNAC Player of the Week April 12-18 - his second such honor of the season. The sophomore from Mukilteo is cuurently averaging 74.1 per round, and finished fourth at last year’s GNAC Championship.
Seniors Mark Strickland and Kyle Schrader are each averaging 75.2 strokes (Schrader was second in Coeur d' Alene in 2014). Brennan Emory (averaging 75.6) and Anthony Allen (75.9) will complete coach Luke Bennett's team.
