Howey-in-the-Hills, Fla. – Illinois State Men's Golf places third in their first appearance at the Mission Inn Spring Spectacular out of 18 teams overall.
The Redbirds keep their spot in third in the final 18 holes of play after ending the weekend two strokes under par. Placing above them were UCF (-3) and Kansas State (-16).
The squad was led by junior Joel Durnford, who placed seventh individually out of 108 golfers. Durnford finished the tournament three-under par after getting two strokes over in the final round. His best round came in the second round after shooting four-under (68).
Assisting Durnford was sophomore Daniel Anfield. Anfield ended the weekend one-under par and tied for eighth with two other golfers. His best round came in the first when he shot three-under par (69) including six birdies. Anfield never left the top 10 on the individual leaderboard throughout the weekend.
Junior David Perkins tied for 21st individually after missing the team's last tournament. Perkins scored a 220 (69-81-70) including six birdies in the final round. Senior David Rauer finished just under Perkins with a score of 221 (70-74-77).
Senior Trent Wallace, who won the medalist honor at the last tournament, finished with a score of 224 (73-78-73). Andrew O'Brien, playing as an individual, also finished with a 224 (72-79-73). Ben Tyrrell finished with a 254 after playing as an individual.
"We compete to win and felt like we had a great opportunity to do that going into today, so there is some disappointment that we weren't able to finish what we started yesterday," coach Ray Kralis said after the round. "Overall though, we continued to move in the right direction with our play this week. We were one of only three teams under par for the tournament, and we picked up a number of quality wins as the field was very good from top to bottom. Joel and Dan stepped up with top 10 finishes, and we showed our depth with four inside the top 25."
The Redbirds return to action when they travel to Columbia, Mo. for the Tiger Invitational April 8-9.
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