KCAC

[Men's Golf] Golf Competes in Two Tournaments

Friends University's golf team played rounds in McPherson, Salina, Hesston and Newton last week as the season is in full swing for the Falcons."Overall, I'm very pleased with what I saw from everyone this week," said Head Coach Aaron Winter. "We played two tournaments back-to-back (Bethany's tournament was rescheduled for Thursday/Friday before the Saturday/Sunday of the Bethel tournament), so (we had) four days of competition in a row. That kind of grind is difficult both mentally and physically and I could tell by the end of the day Sunday the guys were pretty exhausted. I'm proud of them for sticking it out and giving me all they had."The Swede Spring Invitational was the first designed conference tournament of the spring and the Falcons finished 7th overall and 5th among KCAC teams. A total of 51 golfers were in the event. Most of the team had never played the Turkey Creek Course in McPherson for Friday's round, and coupled with high winds, Friends shot a 335 as a team. Friday's round at Salina Municipal wasn't much better weather-wise with cold, wind, and sleet and rain, but the Falcons came through with a marked improvement at 306. "Skyler Miner (Jr., Chanute, Kan.) got off to a rough start but battled back to shoot a 74 and Andrew Briggs (So., Jetmore, Kan.) shot a personal best 75. I'm happy for both those guys because they're starting to see their hard work in the offseason pay off," Winter said. "The score itself was very encouraging to me, but perhaps even more exciting was that every single player could have easily been better, showing me that even though this team is starting to play better, we've still got a long way to go to hit our ceiling."The team score of 306 Friday was the lowest of the season for the Falcons, and five of the six golfers for Friends set or tied personal best rounds.Individual Results:T25th – Skyler Miner: 84-74=158T25th – Andrew Briggs: 83-75=15830th – Kesten Trebbe: 82-77=159T35th – Bradlee Perry: 89-80=169T40th – Danny Crippen: 86-86=17249th – Andrew Trimble: 100-81=181 The Bethel Spring Invitational was the biggest tournament Friends will play in all season by the number of teams (19) and players (103). The first round of the tournament Saturday was played in Hesston and Kesten Trebbe (Fr., Augusta, Kan.) played outstanding, tying for the 2nd best score of the round with a 1-under 70 for just the second round under par in Coach Winter's tenure at Friends. Bradlee Perry (Fr., Clearwater, Kan.) also played very well with a 78. As a team, the Falcons shot a 316 for the 13th best team score of the day.Sunday's 30-40mph winds proved a tough test for Friends in addition to a challenging course at Sand Creek Station in Newton. The Falcons shot 361 as a team which was actually the 10th best team score for the day, bumping them up to an 11th place tournament finish. The average individual score for the round was a 92 in the windy conditions. Trebbe (86) and Miner (87) shot well below that and Perry and Briggs (94) each weren't far off that pace. Trebbe ended up finishing alone in 10th place overall for the tournament."In all my years of coaching, I've never seen a hole play as difficult as #10 did Sunday. It's a par-5 that played to an average of 8.02," Winter said. "I was proud of the way the guys continued to fight through it eveen though I knew they were tired and struggling with the win. It's a good lesson to never give up because you can never tell what's going to happen."Individual Results:10th – Kesten Trebbe: 70-86=156T41st – Skyler Miner: 81-87=168T56th – Bradlee Perry: 78-94=172T79th – Andrew Briggs: 87-94=18182nd – Danny Crippen: 82-101=183T97th – Andrew Trimble: 90-108=198Friends is next in action on March 14th & 15th when they travel to Winfield for the South Central Kansas Invitational hosted by Southwestern College in the final tuneup before the KCAC Championships.