March 24, 2010
NORMAL, Ill. -
Last year, Illinois State senior Kyle Bragg's performance at the UALR/First Tee Collegiate Classic earned him a Missouri Valley Conference Golfer of the Week award. Bragg will look for that same type of performance when the Redbirds travel to Little Rock, Ark., to compete at the two-day, 54-hole tournament, which will take place Chenal Country Club and will begin with a shotgun start Monday.
After nearly a month layoff, head coach Ray Kralis is excited to get back into action for the final stretch of the season.
"We had some great competition in Portugal and coming off of that second-place finish at South Alabama in February, anytime you're that collectively close to the title and you're mixing it up with that high-caliber of teams, it's a huge confidence builder," Kralis said. "We want to continue that momentum into Little Rock."
In addition to Bragg, senior Tommy Bliefnick, juniors Jeff Kellen and Will Cullen and sophomore Eric Meier will also compete.
"We've counted on these guys for a long time and we're excited to get back into competition after a little bit of a hiatus," Kralis said.
Participating schools include Arkansas-Little Rock (host), Arkansas State, Central Arkansas, Iowa State, Lamar, Louisiana- Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Missouri, North Texas, Rice, Oral Roberts, Sam Houston State, Southeast Louisiana, Southern Mississippi, Texas State and Western Kentucky.
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