Pride surge towards contention on day two of Clarke Fall Invite to third place finish

GALENA, Ill. - Playing in their traditional two-day home tournament at Eagle Ridge Resort, the Clarke University men's golf team was able to play their full 12-man roster for the first time in a tournament this season as the top-five lineup finished in third place with the Pride B team earning a seventh place finish on Monday and Tuesday at the South Course at Eagle Ridge.

After a Monday team score of 316, Clarke's top-five would improve by 21 strokes as a team to climb from fifth after round one to third place at the end of the tournament, just seven strokes back of the eventual champions from University of Dubuque as the 295 from the Pride was a stroke shy of the school record for a team score in a single round.

For the second time in the last three events for the CU men, Jackson Theiler was the top individual finisher as he carded a 149 over the two days with a Monday 76 and improving by three strokes on Tuesday for a 73 to tie for third place as they had another top-five finisher in Brendan Pillion who shot a 150 after matching scores of 75 each day to tie for fifth with three other golfers in the field.

The rest of the Pride top-five included the low round of the tournament from Cody Leon as he made significant adjustments from Monday to Tuesday to card a 72 in the final round after his 84 on Monday to finish in 16th with a tournament total of 156, Anantuch Chonruedeepaisan got 10 strokes better from Monday to Tuesday to finish at 160 for the tournament and Brayden Becker finished tied for 28th with a 163.

Finishing in the top 10 while playing as an individual was freshman Ian Lantz as the West Des Moines, Iowa natvie shot back-to-back rounds in the 70s, first a 79 on Monday then putting in a 74 on Tuesday to tie for 10th place with a 153. The other individual for the Pride was senior Tyler Kell, who would finish with a 205 for the tournament while seeing improvement from day one to day two in his final scores.

Clarke's second unit produced team scores of 327 on Monday and 345 on Tuesday with a linuep that consisted of Peyton Roth (82-79=161), Tommy Eikosidekas (80-83=163), Hayden Hoekstra (82-92=174), and Caeson Clarke (87-91=178) for both rounds as Matthew Smith was able to card an 83 on Monday but suffered an injury making him unable to compete on Tuesday so he withdrew from the field.

Pride men's golf will get back to action in two weeks when they travel to Amana, Iowa to compete in the Eagle Fall classic at Amana Colonies Golf Club on Oct. 13-14.