Eastern Illinois University’s men’s golf team finished tied for ninth place at the Ohio Valley Conference Men’s Golf Championships, according to an April 28 announcement. The Panthers posted a team score of 912, marking their best performance in the conference tournament since the 2012 season. Eastern Illinois shared ninth place with Lindenwood.
The result highlights an improvement for the Panthers in recent years. Little Rock led the event from start to finish and won both the team stroke play championship and individual medalist honors through Mark Stockdale. Little Rock, along with UT Martin, Tennessee Tech, and Bryant, advanced to match-play on Wednesday to determine which school will receive the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Weather conditions affected play on Monday, causing several golfers—including Cole Jaworski, Jack Roche, and Ian Hollander—to finish their rounds Tuesday morning before completing their final 18 holes at Birck Boilermaker Golf Club’s Ackerman Hills Course in West Lafayette.
Jaworski was Eastern Illinois’ top performer with a total score of 222 over three rounds (73-74-75), finishing tied for nineteenth overall. Hollander led EIU after two rounds but ended tied for twenty-seventh with a total score of 224 following a final round of 77. Roche completed his tournament tied for forty-second place with a score of 242; his best round was an opening-day seventy-five.
Freshman Luke Watson played all three rounds and finished tied for forty-eighth after shooting a combined score of 236. Alex Siatos played in the first two rounds (163 over thirty-six holes) before being replaced by Reis Claybrooke on Tuesday; Claybrooke shot seventy-nine and placed fifty-eighth.
