Canyons Wins 15th Straight WSC Title, Nilson Named Individual Conference Champ

By Jesse Muñoz/COC Sports Information Director 

BAKERSFIELD — College of the Canyons was crowned champion of the Western State Conference (WSC) for a 15th straight season, with sophomore Anthony Nilson taking individual championship honors following 36 holes of play at Sundale Country Club on Monday.

Canyons finished runner-up to Santa Barbara City College at Monday's 36-hole conference finals event but maintained its conference championship status due to the season-long team standings.

The Cougars posted a 68-2 conference record to best runner-up SBCC at 56-14. Ventura College took third in the WSC standings at 44-26. COC finished first in eight of 10 WSC events on the season.

Season-long standings were also used to award an individual conference champion and select an all-conference team.

Nilson was named WSC Champion after leading the conference with 720 strokes through 10 tournaments. He was named tourney medalist on three occasions, including at Monday's conference finals event.

Jacques Struyf finished runner-up to Nilson with a season-long total of 725. Ed Beehag was next in third place after finishing the year at 731.

Elsewhere, Arnaud Bouhaniche was sixth and Kai Willen took 10th in the field of 44 qualifying players.

Struyf, Beehag, Bouhaniche and Willen were named to the All-WSC team alongside Nilson.

The team conference title is the 30th in program, history dating back to 1990. 

Canyons has now won three straight individual conference championships. Sophomore Ethan Posthumus took home that honor in 2025. The previous year it was Posthumus and Hugo Boyer sharing the award.

The Cougars now move on to compete at the 3C2A Southern California Regional Championships May 3-4, at Olivas Links Golf Course in Ventura.

COC is playing at the regional championships for the 36th time in program history, with a larger goal of advancing to the 3C2A State Championship tournament May 10-11, at SilverRock Resort in La Quinta.

Canyons is the current back-to-back defending state champions after bringing home 3C2A state titles in 2024 and 2025.

Full results from Monday's 36-hole tournament at Sundale Country Club are listed below.

TEAM SCORES
1. Santa Barbara (566-281/285) 2. Canyons (568-286/282) 3. Ventura (583-290/293) 4. Glendale (590-294/296) 5. Citrus (597-295/302) 6. Bakersfield (609-301/308) 7. Antelope Valley (635-325/310) 8. Allan Hancock (646-326/320) 

CANYONS INDIVIDUAL SCORES 
Anthony Nilson (139-71/68 -  T-medalist); Ed Beehag (139-71/68 -T-medalist); Arnaud Bouhaniche (144-73/71 - T6th); Jacques Struyf (146-71/75 - T10th);  Kai Willen (149-74/75 – 17th); Mason Turnbull (157-76/81 – T32nd)

FIELD TOP-35 SCORES
T1 - 139 (71/68) – Anthony Nilson (COC)
T1 - 139 (71/68) – Ed Beehag (COC)
T1 - 139 (71/68) - Reynaldo Rodriguez (SBCC)
4 - 140 (69/71) – Hudo de Mollerat (SBCC)
5 - 141 (69/72) – Mason Gredvig (SBCC)
T6 - 144 (73/71) – Arnaud Bouhaniche (COC)
T6 - 144 (73/71) – Freddie Carcamo (VC)
T6 - 144 (72/72) – Junhao Zhu (GCC)
9 - 145 (72/73) – Andrew Gahshan (CIT)
T10 - 146 (71/75) – Jacques Struyf (COC)
T10 - 146 (72/74) – Aiden Watts (SBCC)
12 - 147 (70/77) – Matthew Jones (VC)
T13 - 148 (76/72) – Nathan Schulz (VC)
T13 - 148 (75/73) – Justin Huitink (GCC)
T13 - 148 (69/79) – Gavin Loughran (GCC)
T13 - 148 (72/76) – Javier Alvarado (CIT)
17 - 149 (74/75) – Kai Willen (COC)
18 - 150 (72/78) – Donovan Chappell (VC)
T19 - 151 (78/73) – Stephen Ong (VC)
T19 - 151 (75/76) – Will Middleton (CIT)
T21 - 152 (75/77) – Caden Raines (VC)
T21 - 152 (76/76) – Ethan Debuskey (BC)
T23 - 153 (75/78) – Wyatt Taylor (SBCC)
T23 - 153 (76/77) – Thomas Holstrom (CIT)
T23 - 153 (76/77) – Noah Palm (BC)
T23 - 153 (76/77) – Ethan Aronson (BC)
T23 - 153 (73/80) – John Alderete (BC)
T28 - 155 (80/75) – Liam Husian (GCC)
T28 - 155 (81/74) – Eli White (AHC)
T30 - 156 (78/78) – Kyle Gordon (GCC)
T30 - 156 (82/74) – Eric David (AVC)
T32 - 157 (76/81) – Mason Turnbull (COC)
T32 - 157 (80/77) – Cody Breuklander (AVC)
34 - 158 (78/80) – Brayden Mlodzik (SBCC)
35 - 159 (81/78) – Tayden Ramos (AVC)

Stay up to date on all this season's action by following the College of the Canyons Athletic department on social media at @COCathletics on X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.  

—Photo courtesy of Bakersfield College Athletics