OAKLAND, Calif. - Northwest Nazarene men's golf shot a six-down in the final round on Tuesday to move up into a fifth-place finish out of 17 teams at the Pioneer Shootout at Corica Park Golf Course.

NNU's six-under 282 in round three improved on their first two rounds from Monday, which were a respectable 290 (+2) and 287 (-1). The Nighthawks' final tally of -5 was just two strokes back of Stanislaus State for fourth and only nine strokes back of tournament champ Cal State San Marcos. 

The Nighthawks finished higher than a pair of teams ranked in the top 40 of Clippd's Division II rankings, as No. 37 Chico State finished sixth and GNAC foe No. 35 Simon Fraser placed seventh. NNU was the highest GNAC finisher at the event, as other conference competition Western Washington was ninth and Saint Martin's was 13th. 

Ben Mulder led the way yet again for the Nighthawks, shooting -3 for the tourney including a four-under 68 in round two and one-under 71 in round three, finishing in the tie for 11th. 

Kasey Gaff and Noah Larson both tied for 23rd at -1. Gaff eclipsed 70 on two of three rounds, shooting a three-under 69 in the first and third rounds with a 77 in between. Larson tallied rounds of 72-69-74 to get to his one-under 215.

Dylan Christensen rounded out the counting scorers for the Nighthawks, tying for 36th at 218 (+2) for the event. Colton Sisk was NNU's fifth in the squad, finishing at 227, while Daniel Rowe also competed as an individual for the Nighthawks. 

NNU will return home for a bit before heading to Arizona during Spring Break, competing in a pair of tournaments back-to-back on March 22-23 and March 24-25.