SANTA CRUZ, Calif. - Junior Darien Zhao had his third top-10 finish of the season to lead the UC Irvine men's golf team at the 76th Western Intercollegiate presented by Titleist at Pasatiempo Golf Club.
 
Zhao tied for sixth in a field of 92 which included 15 individuals featured in the Golfstat rankings. He placed ahead of nine of the 15 ranked golfers, including No. 3 Michael Thorbjornse of Stanford and No. 24 William Mouw of Pepperdine. It was the first top-10 showing by an Anteater at the elite Western Intercollegiate since 2014 when Pete Fernandez took third.
 
Zhao entered Wednesday's third round in a tie for sixth after firing back-to-back sub-70 scores. He did enough to maintain his position over the final 18 with a 73. Zhao birdied the eighth, which was his second to last hole, to get to 3-over. He closed out the tournament at 2-under 208 (67-68-73).
 
Sophomore Johnny Bai (72-73-77) and redshirt freshman Jin Nakao (70-72-80) tied for 62nd with a total of 222.
 
Freshmen Rei Harashima (75-74-76) and Andy Zou (70-79-76) also tied for 77th, while sophomore Joshua Lane rounded out the 6-count-5 lineup with a 239.
 
Eighth-ranked Pepperdine came in at 16-under to win its second Western Intercollegiate title in the last three years. The Waves were nine strokes ahead of runner-up and 22nd-ranked Oregon. Cal and No. 7 Stanford were also third and fourth, respectively, while No. 24 Colorado State and No. 44 BYU tied for fifth.
 
No. 37 Derek Hitchner of Pepperdine was the individual medalist at 7-under 203 (68-64-71).
 
UC Irvine has a little over two weeks before the start of the Big West Championships in La Quinta, California, April 30-May 2.