UHV’s Dakiche wins Claud Jacobs, Jags place second

Enzo Dakiche has been waiting patiently for this moment – 491 days to be exact.

The Paris, France, native carded a one-over 73 in the final round of the Claud Jacobs Invitational at the Par 72 Victoria Country Club to win the tournament. It's his first win at UHV and the second of his collegiate career with the first coming on October 25, 2022, while at Wayland Baptist.

He won by two strokes over Texas Wesleyan's Colin Price (72-67-74—213) and propelled the No. 15-ranked Jaguars to a second place finish behind No. 9 Texas Wesleyan.

He's the second Jaguar to win a tournament this season, joining junior Josh Van Der Wath with that distinction.

"I'm really elated, to be honest, even though I didn't play the way I wanted today," Dakiche said. "I didn't think it was going to be enough to win. But I'm happy with how I played. I'm really proud of winning at home here. Even finishing second with the team is pretty good. I think it's a good preparation for the conference tournament."

Dakiche shot rounds of 66 and 72 to go with his final round 73 to shoot 211 over the three rounds. His 66 set a new personal best on Monday.

It was the third top 5 finish this year for the sophomore from France. He has carded eight rounds of par or better this season after his performance in the first two rounds of the Claud Jacobs.

"Enzo is a very talented player. He's probably one of the better ball strikers I've had in my career," said head coach Garrett Adair. "He's comfortable going low, but I think he just needed to do it in a tournament again, especially a tournament at VCC where it's a tough track, tough greens. It was good to see and I hope this catapults him into a multi-time winner."

Paul Chopin (71-77-72—220) turned in a top 10 performance in the tournament finishing ninth.

The Jaguars played consistent on Tuesday, shooting two rounds of 72 from Chopin and Nathan Biais (78-72-72—222, T-11), two rounds of 73 from Dakiche and Hayden Hardwick (76-77-73—226, T-19) and a 77 from Van Der Wath (77-84-77—238, 43rd), which was dropped as the team's highest score in the round.

That helped UHV (290-298-290—878) beat Texas Wesleyan's B team, No. 11 St. Thomas (FL), No. 22 Southwestern Christian (OK), as well as conference foes Rocky Mountain College, Texas A&M-San Antonio, Louisiana Christian and Our Lady of the Lake.

With the 2024 Red River Athletic Conference being held at Victoria Country Club for a fourth consecutive year, Adair hopes his team can build on this performance in their four remaining tournaments before the RRAC Tournament April 29-May 1.

"This is probably the strongest field we've had," Adair said. "Texas Wesleyan, Southwestern Christian and St. Thomas are all ranked. It should help our rankings.

"This is one of the most talented teams I've had, we just haven't clicked at the right time. Dropping a 77, if we can continue to do that, that's gonna put us in a lot of good positions. I'm just excited the team clicked. We know any given week any of our top five guys can go out and win."

Competing as individuals for UHV were Gabriel Guerrero (76-71-80—237, T-41), Cort Tunall (79-78-84—241, T-46) and Edgar Hinojosa (83-90-87—260, 50th).

UHV will next compete in the Schreiner Shoot-Out in Kerrville April 4-5.