Tampa, Fla. –Trent Wallace earned individual medalist honors at the USF Invitational as he led Illinois State to a second-place tie with Elon overall. This is the second time in the 2018-19 school year a Redbird golfer has won the medalist honor at a tournament.
With a field-leading score of 204 (68-69-67), senior Trent Wallace won the individual field 12 strokes under par. The final round was his best outing of the tournament, shooting five-below par with seven birdies. Trent never stepped down from the top spot throughout the tournament and had at least a share of the best round score in each of the three rounds.
Junior Joel Durnford also had a great tournament, finishing even par and tied for eighth individually. From the end of the first day to the end of the tournament, Durnford climbed up five spots on the leaderboard.
Senior David Rauer and sophomore Andrew O'Brien both tied for 29th at the end of the tournament eight above par. Sophomore Daniel Anfield finished the tournament with a score of 228 (75-75-78). Freshman Ben Tyrrell finished his first tournament of his Redbird career with a 244 (76-82-86).
"I am very pleased with our team performance and feel like this was a big step back in the right direction," coach Ray Kralis said. "Trent stepped up in a big time way this week with three great rounds knowing we needed it to compete. Joel also gave us three good scores and didn't let much get away in today's round of 70. Without Dave Perkins here for this one, we knew it would take a team effort. Andrew gave us a big round today, and David was very solid for us in the first two rounds. I'm proud of these guys for how they responded to the challenge and seized the opportunity, and we'll definitely be better because of it."
Illinois State finished their first USF Invitational appearance tied for second-place with Elon. The Redbirds finished with a score of 866 (290-288-288) and finished behind host and 22nd ranked South Florida.
The next appearance for the squad will be Saturday and Sunday, March 16 & 17 at the Mission Inn Spring Spectacular in Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla.
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