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The Loop

Big weekend for Tennessee men and women

October 19, 2009

Some quick thoughts from the weekend:

1. Got to like the resolve that Tennessee sophomore Nathalie Mansson showed at the Mercedes-Benz Collegiate yesterday. With a chance to win the individual title at Fox Den CC in Knoxville, Tenn., on the final hole, the Stockholm, Sweden native made a bogey to fall into a playoff with Louisville's Laura Anderson. After Mansson and Anderson made pars on the first four extra holes, Mansson claimed the title, the first of her college career, with a par on the fifth playoff hole.

Mansson's performance (three-under 213) during the weekend helped the Lady Vols win by 19 strokes (in cold, rainy conditions), the largest margin of victory of any team at the Mercedes-Benz event in its 13-year history. It was also Tennessee's first team victory in three years.

"I kept my focus and stayed patient with it being such a long day," Mansson said. "I just focused on one shot at a time. It feels really good - especially because it's my first one. It's great we won as a team too. We have really worked hard for this. We figured we were due to win a tournament sometime soon and decided it might was well be this weekend."

2. Not to be outdone by the women, the Tennessee men finished tied with Oregon State at three-under 861 after 54 holes at the Bank of Tennessee Intercollegiate at The Ridges in Jonesborough, Tenn., but was declared the winner after the Vols' fifth scorer Sunday, Justin Walker, shot a 77 to edge the 78 posted by Oregon State's fifth man,Mike Barry. It's the second win of the fall for Tennessee and the third time in six years the school has won the BofT.

Give credit to UT's Darren Renwick, who in the penultimate group made a 40-foot putt for birdie on the 18th hole to help lead the Vols to victory.

3. Oregon State, meanwhile, wouldn't have been in position to win without the efforts of Diego Velasquez. The junior shot a 10-under 206 to cruise to the individual title by seven strokes and earn the third victory of his college career.

__4.__The Arizona State women had a second, a T-3 and two T-6s, to beat out UCLA (which had four T-6s) and win the Stanford Intercollegiate title by four strokes.

5. In case you were wondering if any other schools actually played at Stanford GC in Palo Alto, USC was there as Jennifer Song fired a final-round 67 to pass ASU's Carlota Ciganda for the individual title. The performance helped to avenge last year's Pac-10 Championship finish, where Ciganda beat Song in a playoff on the same course.