The Hillsdale College men's golf team shot the best single round of any team in this week's Great Midwest Athletic Conference championship meet to secure a runner-up finish on Tuesday on the Big Blue Course at the University Club of Kentucky.
The Charger foursome combined to shoot a seven-under 281 in Tuesday's final round, blowing past the team who entered the day in second place, Findlay, to beat the Oilers by eight strokes in the final standings. Hillsdale also made up five strokes on the conference champion, Trevecca Nazarene, but couldn't overcome the massive lead the Trojans had built in the first two rounds to secure the title, finishing with 864 strokes to Trevecca's 852.
Leading the way for the Chargers was senior Ryan Zetwick, who shot a 74-71-67-212 to finish third in his final conference championship, just two strokes behind medalist Ryan Rozic of Trevecca. Zetwick was even par on the front nine on Tuesday, but caught fire on the back, making birdies on five of seven holes from the 10th to the 16th to secure his best-ever finish in a collegiate tournament. Along with helping the Chargers to their best finish in a spring conference championship since the Hillsdale men's golf program was restarted in 2014, Zetwick also becomes just the fifth golfer since the program restart to earn first-team All-Conference honors with his finish on Tuesday.
Zetwick got plenty of help from his teammates to help push the Chargers to second on the leaderboard. Senior George Roberts was Hillsdale's top player on Monday in the first rounds, playing the first 36 holes at one under, and finished tied for 10th with a 71-72-75-218.
Freshmen Gerry Jones Jr. and Will Verduzco also posted excellent performances as well in their first ever appearances in a G-MAC Championship event. Jones Jr. finished 13th overall, shooting a 73-77-69-219 and rallying from a shaky first day with a three-under-par final round to help the Chargers pull away from the Oilers. Verduzco was solid throughout, shooting a 75-73-72 and improving in every round to card a 220 and finish just behind Jones in a tie for 14th place.
Sophomore Josh Davenport shot a 72-77-73-222 to finish tied for 18th for the Chargers as well, giving Hillsdale five golfers in the top 20 in the conference final.
As mentioned above, the runner-up finish is Hillsdale's best performance in a spring conference championship since the program restarted in 2014, surpassing the third-place finish in the G-MAC the Chargers earned in 2019. Hillsdale did win a G-MAC Fall Championship in 2019 as well.
After one of the best seasons in program history, the Chargers now wait to hear if they will be one of the eight teams selected to represent the Midwest Region in the NCAA Super Regional round. Hillsdale was ranked seventh in the Midwest in the most recent NCAA rankings, and the Chargers hope that a strong performance this week will be enough to earn their second-ever NCAA Division II bid. The field will be announced at 6 p.m. on Friday, April 23 on NCAA.com.
Photo by Kyle Niermann