Oct. 22, 2009
NORMAL, Ill. -
Fresh off of its first team victory of the season at the D.A. Weibring Intercollegiate, Illinois State heads into its final tournament of the fall season at the Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate. The two-day, 54-hole tournament will be held at the New Mexico State University Golf Course and will begin with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. Monday.
With this being the Redbirds last competition of the fall season, men's golf head coach Ray Kralis knows the importance of a good performance to send the team into the spring on a high note.
"We want to finish the fall on a strong note especially after what we did here at home," Kralis said. "From a ranking standpoint and with the opportunity to finish off with a competitive field, this is one that could really solidify our position and set us up to make some noise in the spring. There's a great opportunity here in front of us and it's a big one."
The same group that won the Weibring Intercollegiate will compete this week. Seniors Tommy Bliefnick and Kyle Bragg along with juniors Will Cullen and Jeff Kellen and sophomore Eric Meier will all play a hand in bringing home some hardware for a second-straight tournament.
"We can compete with every team there if we get the team effort that we're capable of putting up," Kralis said. "Tommy, Kyle, Eric and Jeff all have had some standout individual performances and Will is playing better and better through the fall. I feel really good about the five guys we have going out there and I know they're capable of getting it done for us. I feel like we're going into this one ready to roll."
The field for the tournament features 17 teams including Air Force, Texas State, Boise State, Kansas State, UTEP, Nevada, New Mexico State, Rhode Island, Nebraska, UNLV, North Texas, Washington State, Kansas, Idaho, Western New Mexico and Santa Clara.
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