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Golf finishes 11th at GLIACs
By Tim Sayers
Collegian Freelancer
The men's golf
team ended their fall season with a trip to the GLIAC Championships
in Erie, Pa. on Oct. 6-7. The Chargers finished in the same
place as last year, but improved on last year's total by 47
strokes, earning a composite score of 949. The team finished
11th of 12 teams, beating out Northern Michigan.
Both Wayne State and Ferris State
scored an 884. However, Wayne State captured the overall title
by beating Ferris State in a playoff.
"We are trying to constantly
improve and slowly work our way up the standings," coach
Sam Hargraves said. "Our league is a very competitive league
from top to bottom, and my hope was that we could compete [score-wise]
with the middle to bottom half of the league."
Freshman Mike Ketelaar led the
Chargers with a low score of 226, good enough for a tie for
14th place overall.
"Our conference is very competitive
and we just wanted to do respectably," Ketelaar said. "We
didn't shoot our best, but we did pretty good."
"We can't make excuses and
worry about things we cannot control. We have to be thankful
and feel fortunate that we get the opportunity to go out and
compete at a high level," Hargraves said.
Ketelaar was followed by freshman
James Faysal who shot a 232 (t-29th), sophomore Rob Schlitts
with a 245 (t-53rd), freshman Ryan Timmer with a 250 (57th),
and senior Drew Piazza with a 251 (t-58th).
With their fall season over, the
Chargers now have a break until their spring season in which
they will train and continue to improve.
"We are about to start lifting
and running in the next few days," Ketelaar said. "Coach
Hargraves is going to have us start some kind of program that
will improve our core strength and our overall flexibility."
The Chargers end their best season
in the past few years. They were more competitive with other
teams, improved drastically on overall scores, and moved their
way up the standings.
"I have to reemphasize the
fact that we have 11 quality golfers who love to play and push
each other in practice. Any player that is playing well enough
in practice to make the tournaments has only done so because
he has been pushed by the others," Hargraves said. "We
just need to continue to practice, work on our physical fitness
and mental attitude, and approach the game to get better."
Charger golf will return to action
on March 20-21 when they travel to Lafayette, Ky., for the Regional
II tournament.
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