Official Championship Page
INDIANAPOLIS – Trevecca Nazarene secured the program’s fifth consecutive league title in wire-to-wire fashion as the final round of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Men’s Golf Championship finished on Tuesday.
A 15-stroke first-day lead for the Trojans (293-303-304--900) turned into an eventual nine-stroke margin of victory over tourney runner-up Davis & Elkins (302-309-298--909).
The early indication in the fall at the inaugural Great Midwest Fall Invitational was that the gap may have closed, but the five TNU starters of Landon Cottrell, Trevor Lay, Larken Whittemore, Payton Williams and Garrett Evans, rose to the occasion to hold off the competition.
Five titles in five years suggests a dynasty is in the making. And combined with the women, TNU made it a perfect 10-for-10 in conference golf tournaments since 2013.
The Trojans earned an automatic-qualifying bid into the NCAA Championship Super Regional (combination of the Midwest and Central Regions) for the second straight year. The top five teams and top two student-athletes not from a team in each regional would advance to this year’s championship final in Kissimmee, Fla.
TNU head coach David Head was proud of the team and is looking forward for the opportunity to compete in the next stage of the postseason.
“Congratulations to all the other teams that participated and gave us a run for the money on the men’s side, including Davis & Elkins and Cedarville,” said Head. “All of the programs in the conference have great players and great coaches. We’re just proud to be champions five years in a row.”
“The men all played well and I expect that really from them all,” he added. “We can win on any given week I feel and we have not had a consistent No. 1 through 5 all year long because everyone has been battling.”
A total of seven student-athletes were honored as Great Midwest all-conference selections by virtue of their finish. The remaining three and individual awards of coach, player and freshman of the year, is determined by a coaches vote.
The top five finishers (including ties) qualify for the all-conference team. Kyle and teammate Kollin Hopwood, who finished fourth, represented D&E. Additionally, Cedarville teammates Jordan Reese and Carter Ehms each tied for fifth while Cottrell and Williams highlighted the Trojans by placing third and tying for fifth. Tournament runner-up Adam Jeffries of Alderson Broaddus also made the list of talented performers.
Davis & Elkins’ Alistair Kyle stole the show with one of the best rounds in conference history to overtake Jeffries and a host of contenders for top individual honors. The senior from Glasgow, Scotland, started on hole 10 with the shotgun start and birdied his first two holes while making eagle on just his fifth hole of the morning.
The medalist race was climactic as positioning towards the top kept fluctuating as the day progressed. Cedarville’s Reese was able to grab the lead temporarily for about three holes playing through the back nine while Jeffries was able to make birdie on three consecutive holes on No. 2-4 to retake the lead.
But Kyle made birdie on the par-3 7th hole to break a tie with Jeffries and his finished with two pars, including the problematic par-4 9th hole to finish it out.
Kyle was one of the league’s top scoring leaders this season coming into the tournament and had five top-10 finishes for a flourishing D&E program that had won four team titles in 2016-17 alone.
“It was a fun day,” Kyle said. “Started pretty hot when I was 5 under through 6 (holes) with an eagle and then on just played solidly. I made a lot of par putts from four or five feet which was key and kept me going and made a birdie with three holes to go which was really helpful.”
That makes it two Alistair’s for the D&E men’s golf program to have earned first place in the conference tournament after Alistair Cameron battled gusting winds and rain to win the 2015 event.
Cedarville and Malone were separated by just one stroke for third and fourth in the team standings. Alderson Broaddus was fifth, Kentucky Wesleyan finished sixth and Ohio Valley rounded out the team scores.