The Hillsdale College men's golf team faced off against a who's who of Midwest Regional foes at this weekend's SVSU Spring Intercollegiate, hosted at the Kearney Hills Golf Club in Lexington, Kentucky.
With several important regional teams in attendance, the top of the leaderboard was tightly packed with competitive squads. Hillsdale finished a respectable 12th out of 21 teams with a two-round score of 607 -- just nine strokes out of sixth place, but also just 12 strokes from dropping to 19th place in an incredibly close battle for placing at the invitational.
Great balance helped the Chargers to their finish, as all four of Hillsdale's scoring golfers finished clustered together in the middle of the leaderboard. That depth allowed Hillsdale to beat multiple teams with higher individual finishers in the final standings.
Sophomore Filippo Reale and senior Darragh Monaghan tied for the lead for the Chargers, with both finishing in 36th place with a final score of 151. Reale made an impressive improvement from his play on Saturday in the final round on Sunday, cutting three strokes off a first-day 77 to finish with a 74. Monaghan shot 75-76 for the two rounds as well for Hillsdale.
Freshman Maxwell Burns finished just a stroke behind Reale and Monaghan in a tie for 46th place, shooting a 77-75=152, and senior Gerry Jones, Jr. was two strokes back in a tie for 54th place, with a score of 77-76=153. Rounding out Hillsdale's main quintet of golfers was senior Drew Gandy, who carded an 83-79=162.
On top of Hillsdale's five golfers competing as a team, senior Carson Stohler also played as an individual for Hillsdale. While his totals couldn't be counted to Hillsdale's team score, Stohler had a solid performance, shooting a 78-73 to finish tied with Reale and Monaghan for 36th overall, and posting the lowest 18-hole score for the Chargers in the invitational.
Hillsdale was one of the best teams in the tournament on Par 3s at the SVSU Spring Invitational, as its +13 combined score on those holes was tied for second-best among the 21 competing teams, led by Jones, Jr., who played Par 3s in +1 for the Invitational. However, the Chargers failed to take full advantage of birdie and eagle opportunities on Par 5s, shooting -6 combined on Par 5 holes, tied for 14th out of the 21 competing schools.
While Hillsdale was hoping for a better finish, the Chargers were one of the best performing G-MAC schools in the event, finishing just two strokes behind conference foe Northwood and beating Kentucky Wesleyan, Tiffin, Walsh and Trevecca Nazarene. Hillsdale will look to build off of this performance with another key invitational full of Midwest Regional opponents, the Findlay Spring Invite, back in Lexington, Kentucky at the University Club on March 27 and 28.