ODESSA, Texas (October 10, 2025) – Coming off a first-place finish both as a team and individual at The Hrnciar earlier this week, the UT Permian Basin men's golf team was among those receiving votes in the Bushnell/Golfweek DII Coaches Poll for October 10, 2025.

With 40 points, UTPB was the ninth team listed out of 33 teams in the receiving votes section.

From the Lone Star Conference, St. Mary's (216 points) is No. 13, Oklahoma Christian (178 points) is No. 16, West Texas A&M (99 points) is No. 23, and Midwestern State (92 points) is No. 25, making UTPB the fifth-highest ranked team from the conference. UT Tyler is receiving three votes as well.

The top of the poll saw West Florida regain the top spot as the Argonauts received 14 first-place votes and 551 points. North Georgia (two first-place votes), Florida Southern (two first-place votes), Lee (one first-place vote), and Georgia Southwestern rounded out the top five, while Central Oklahoma (two first-place votes), Grand Valley State, Lander (one first-place vote), Wingate (one first-place vote), and Columbus State completed the top 10.

UTPB had to a chance to try and win its season-opening tournament after tying for third place after each of the first two rounds at the DII Shootout at PGA Riviera Maya while senior Will Tate led the tournament by two strokes entering the final round. UTPB was just two strokes off the lead after shooting eight-over-par and trying for the lowest team score during round two. In the end, UTPB fell back to sixth place as a team while Tate ultimately tied for seventh, but still put together a top-10 finish.

In its second tournament of the season, however, UTPB did not fall back during the final round, and instead pulled off the wire-to-wire win. As a team, the Falcons rolled to a 17-stroke win over the rest of the field at The Hrnciar, while individually, Nizar Bourehim picked up medalist honors by one stroke over teammate Ioan Rowe. UTPB shot eight-under-par during each of the first two rounds and led the tournament by four strokes after round one and by seven strokes after round two. In the end, UTPB (280-280-289; 849; -15) was the only team to finish under-par for the tournament.

It was the fourth tournament title for the Falcons in the last three seasons and was the second for UTPB in two years under the direction of Head Coach Paul Chavez.

By the end of the first two rounds, Bourehim and Rowe both found themselves in a three-player tie for first place at eight-under. Bourehim shot three-under during round one and five-under during round two while Rowe went eight-under during round two, the best round of any player in the tournament. During the final round, Bourehim shot two-under, making him the only player in the field of 76 golfers to shoot under-par during all three rounds of the tournament, and good enough to give him a one-stroke win over Rowe.

Records were set as the Falcons' two-round team score of 560 was good for the lowest two-round team score in the history of UTPB men's golf. In addition, UTPB final team score of 849 was the third-lowest three-round score in program history. With his second-round score of 64, Rowe set a new tournament record and tied for the third-lowest single round score in program history. Lastly, with a three-round score of 206, Bourehim's score was tied for the third-lowest in the UTPB record books. Bourehim is the fourth-ever UTPB golfer to win a tournament.

Tate also put together his second straight top-10 finish to open up the season as he opened the tournament with a four-under-par and was still two-under-par heading into the final round. Tate finished with a one-over score during the third round, keeping him under-par for the tournament and allowing him to tie for ninth place.

Coach Chavez spoke on his team's standing in the poll and said, "Coming into a new program, my goal was to get this program to national prominence, and I think we are getting to that point. Obviously after winning our last tournament in Oklahoma and finishing in the top-six in Mexico, we have some momentum going and have some positive things to build on. My goal is to build a championship program, and we are trending in the right direction."

The team is back in action next week (Oct. 14-15) for the Ryan Palmer Invitational hosted by West Texas A&M University at the Amarillo Country Club.