NAVARRE, Fla. -- Defending Conference USA men's golf champion Houston successfully defended that title with a comfortable 22-shot victory in the 54-hole 2000 C-USA Championship that ended here Wednesday. This year's event was hosted by The Navarre Beach Committee and played at The Club at Hidden Creek.
The Cougars won last year's title by 27 strokes over runner-up UNC Charlotte.
The Cougars shot their best round of the tournament (283) on the final day and were never threatened as they coasted to a victory that also resulted in All-Conference honors for four Houston players as well as All-Tournament honors for four of the five. The Cougars' Andy Sanders shot 70-71-71-212 to claim medalist honors, Southern Miss' Justin Emil earned the freshman of the year award with rounds of 74-74-72-220 and South Florida Coach Jim Fee was voted coach of the year honors by his peers.
Alabama-Birmingham finished second at 879, South Florida third at 884, Louisville fourth at 889, North Carolina Charlotte fifth at 895 and Southern Miss shot its best round of the tournament to move to sixth place at 897.
Each of the 12 league schools taking part in the event played five golfers, and counted the top four scores. In addition to Sanders' four-under-par score, UAB's Chris Devlin and Houston's B. J. Staten were the only other players to finish below par, at 215.
The All-Tournament team included Sanders, B. J. Staten, James Edmondson and Chris Morris all of Houston, Chris Devlin of UAB, Chris Campbell of Louisville and Nick Lykins of Cincinnati.
All-Conference honors went to Devlin, who was voted player-of-the-year by league coaches, Sanders, Staten, Morris and Wade Ormsby all of Houston, Brett Hitchcock of South Florida, Jeff Curl of UNCC, Campbell of Louisville, Jim Herman of Cincinnati and Michael O'Connel of DePaul.
League coaches also voted to return next year's championship to the Club at Hidden Creek.
Complete team and individual results follow: