SAN ANTONIO, Texas (September 15, 2026) – The first action of the new 2026-27 season for The University of Texas Permian Basin men's golf team saw the Falcons shoot three-under-par during the final round to move up three spots in the team standings, ending in eighth place out of 12 teams at the The Dewsweeper Invitational hosted by St. Mary's University.

This was the team's first appearance at The Dewsweeper Invitational on the Canyons Course at TPC San Antonio. The tournament also marked the Falcons' return to competition following their third appearance in the NCAA Regional Championship last Spring. UTPB enters the Fall receiving votes in the Bushnell/Golfweek Coaches' Poll, released by the Golf Coaches Association of America just over a week ago.

UT Permian Basin (RV) was joined by 11 other schools in the field, including six teams from the Lone Star Conference. St. Mary's (No. 13), Midwestern State (RV), Cameron (RV), Oklahoma Christian (RV), Dallas Baptist (No. 24) and UT Tyler (RV) were the other LSC teams competing in the tournament. Georgia Southwestern State (No. 3), Southern Arkansas, Arkansas Tech, Cal State-San Bernadino (No. 20) and Southern Wesleyan completed the field. In all, there were four nationally-ranked teams and five teams receiving votes in the field of 12 teams.

After finishing 11th after the first two rounds on Monday, UTPB (294-297-285; 876; +12) bounced back during the final round on Tuesday to surpass fellow Lone Star Conference opponents St. Mary's (300-290-300; 890; +23) in 11th place and UT Tyler (285-298-304; 887; +26) in ninth place.

UTPB's score of 285 during round three was tied for the second-lowest score during the round and was just one off the third-round score shot by tournament champion Cal State-San Bernadino (290-286-284; 860; -4).

"We got off to a slow start, but the guys were motivated to play well today, and we were able to do just that," spoke UTPB Head Coach Paul Chavez. "Shooting the second-lowest round of the day today was definitely respectable, and now we just needed to bring it all together and put together some more consistent team scores."

UTPB's top returner and a 2025-26 Second-Team All-LSC player, senior Ioan Rowe (72-72-68; 212; -4), shot four-under and rose eight spots during the final round to finish in the top-five (5th place) out of 60 total golfers. He started the tournament with back-to-back rounds of even-par, putting him in a tie for 13th heading into the third round. Rowe finished the tournament shooting even-par on both par-3's (3.00 scoring average; T9th) and par-4's (4.00 scoring average; T7th), and was also tied for fifth in the tournament with 12 birdies.

"Ioan is an all-conference returner, and we expected him to go out and play some solid golf, and he did exactly what he needed to do to get off to a great start this season," added Coach Chavez.

Next were a pair of newcomers in junior Dian Wilmot (73-75-71; 219; +3) and freshman Benson Diehm (73-76-72; 221; +5) both finishing in the top-30 after shooting just one-over during the opening round. Wilmot shot one-under and rose 11 spots during the final round to tie for 22nd while Diehm shot even-par to rise nine spots and tie for 28th. In the end, Diehm was tied for seventh in par-5 scoring (4.58; -5) in the tournament.

"Both Dian and Benson are going to be great additions to our team, and I am looking forward to them performing well all year," concluded Coach Chavez.

Sophomore Laurent Beech (76-74-74; 224; +8) shot just two-over during each of the final two rounds and improved by eight spots during the third round to tie for 38th while senior Nizar Bourehim (78-77-80; 235; +19) finished 58th.

UTPB played its best on par-5's, finishing fourth in the field at 14-under (4.77 scoring average). The Falcons were also third with 169 pars, were tied for third with two eagles (Diehm, Beech), and had the third-lowest number of bogeys (50).

Pete Dye, working with Bruce Lietzke, designed the par-72, 7,106-yard Canyons course, which previously hosted the PGA Tour Champions San Antonio Championship. The course features wide fairways, hilly terrain and panoramic views of the Cibolo Canyons. The course underwent a full-scale bunker restoration project in 2022 to match Dye's original design.

For its next tournament, UTPB returns to the same event where it began its 2025-26 season, competing in the DII Shootout Shootout at PGA Riviera Maya from September 27-29 at Tulum County Club at PGA Riviera Maya (Mexico).