The Fort Hays State men’s golf team competed over Labor Day weekend in Axtell, Neb., at Awarii Dunes Golf Club. Fort Hays State took third out of the eight teams competing in the event.
This year’s event was match play. Teams were set up in a blind draw eight-team bracket. FHSU drew Central (Neb.) Community College in the first round of play. The first team to secure three team points wins the match and moves on to the next round in the bracket. If matches end in a tie, each team gets half a point. If the teams end in a 2.5-2.5 point tie the No. 1 players from each team have a sudden death playoff to decide the team that moves on.
The FHSU men got off to a hot start with sophomore Trey Herman going 4 holes up through 4 holes and freshman Mark Cunningham got an early advantage as well going 3 holes up through 6 holes played. Travis Kleweno, Luke Gordon, and Nick VonLintel all started off their matches up in the first 5 holes. The final tally in the morning match on Sunday was FHSU 4-1 over CCC. Herman closed out his match early 7 holes up with 5 holes to go. Freshman Mark Cunningham closed out his match 7 holes up with 6 to go. Kleweno closed out his match 2 up with 1 to go. Gordon closed his match out 3 up with 2 to go. The only loss in the morning went to VonLintel who fought a hard match but ended up 2 holes down with 1 to go.
In the afternoon matches FHSU drew the Nebraska-Kearney B-Team. FHSU did not start out quite as hot and had to battle through the matches to stay around even with each of it’s opponents. Herman pushed ahead won his match 2 holes up with 1 to go to win FHSU’s first point. Mark Cunningham halved his match where he was up all day when his opponent made a lengthy putt to halve the match on the final hole. That gave FHSU only one and a half points for the afternoon session. Travis Kleweno, Luke Gordon and Nick VonLintel each lost their afternoon matches down 2 holes with 1 to go, 1 down with 0 holes to go, and 6 down with 5 to go, respectively. Kleweno and Gordon both went down to the final 2 holes but fell just short. UNK-B won the afternoon session 3.5 to 1.5.
On Monday FHSU played for 3rd place against the Nebraska-Kearney C-Team. Trey Herman won his match 3 up with 2 to go. Mark Cunningham won his match 4 up with 3 to go. Travis Klewono won his match 2 up with 1 to go. Luke Gordon lost his match 2 down and Nick VonLintel lost his match 3 down with 2 to go. FHSU won the Monday match 3-2 to take third place in the event.
The Tigers play their first MIAA sanctioned event of the year at the Pittsburg State Invitational next week, September 10-11 at Crestwood Country Club in Pittsburg, Kan.
– FHSU Sports Information –