Caden Fioroni was mentally and physically tough to win the prestigious 2025 Southern Highlands Collegiate in Las Vegas. He credited getting in the “flow state” for the victory and focusing on breathing to survive the final round of three at the challenging and beautiful Southern Highlands Golf Club. Photo: Steve Spatafore. Video: Brian Hurlburt, Trey Hurlburt.
Clinging to a two-shot lead over No. 2 Auburn’s Carson Bacha with two holes remaining and sitting at 1-over for the day, Fioroni delivered his sixth consecutive par on the 18th hole to give him a final score of 9-under 207 (67-67-73) for the tournament. It was his first collegiate victory.
His victory helped move the Rebels to a runner-up finish and a move up to #16 in the country, their highest ranking since 2018.
“I’m so proud of the way we played, especially the first two rounds when the weather was tough and you could see what the overall scores of the tournament were like,” said UNLV Head Coach Jean-Paul Hebert. “Our guys really held their own. Winning can be infectious and when you see a teammate win a tournament it can inspire you and everyone else on the team, so it’s great to see Caden do that today. We’ve had some big goals of getting multiple individual wins. We’ve got that now, and our team finishing second was also really great.”
As a team, The Scarlet & Gray posted an even-par 288 on the day to finish second at 1-over 865 through 54 holes, landing only behind the second-ranked Tigers (-9) in a stacked 14-team field that featured nine top-25 ranked squads and 13 top-50 teams. Among the list of teams the No. 31 Rebels finished ahead of were No. 4 Oklahoma, No. 9 Virginia, No. 11 Florida, No. 12 Illinois, No. 16 Georgia Tech, No. 18 SMU, No. 22 San Diego State, No. 24 Pepperdine, No. 26 Texas A&M, No. 30 Georgia and No. 50 USC.
Four Rebels finished inside the top 30, including sophomore Zach Little (+3) in a tie for 12th, senior Trevor Lewis (+6) in a tie for 28th and senior Wyatt Plattner (+7) in a tie for 30th. Behind them, senior Ben Sawaia (+13) closed out the squad’s lineup in a tie for 63rd. Playing as individuals, sophomore Dillon Dean (+10) ended up in 47th place, while junior Billy Smith (+15) tied for 75th and junior Brett Sawaia (+22) finished 80th.