At the University Club of Kentucky, the Hillsdale College Chargers found themselves in third place at the end of the G-MAC Championship April 19-20. With a team score of 36-over-par, the Chargers were eight behind second place Findlay and 19 behind the winning Trevecca Nazarene after the 54-hole tournament.
After enjoying success earlier in the season with a tournament win at the Music City Invitational in Nashville, the Chargers couldn’t reach the same successes in the final tournament of the season.
Junior Ryan Zetwick said the first round 10-over-par followed by a second round 21-over-par all but took the team out of contention.
“Unfortunately, we got off to a bad start the first day and were too far behind to recover,” Zetwick said. “The conditions were bad and that only added to the tough scoring.”
In junior George Roberts’ take of it, the wet conditions in the second round presented difficult challenges that the Chargers were unable to overcome.
“In the second round the heavens opened,” Roberts said. “My hands were slipping; it was miserable.”
Senior Liam Purslowe and Zetwick drove the Chargers, finishing tied-eighth individually at eight-over-par. Freshman Josh Davenport finished behind them at 12-over, followed by Roberts (+14), and sophomore Logan Anuszkiewicz (+26).
Despite a rocky start, Zetwick said there are still positives to take from the tournament and the season which may come to an end if the Chargers don’t qualify for the NCAA tournament.
“I think as a team we have a lot to be proud of this season, we won our first two tournaments in program history and hopefully will qualify for the Super Regionals,” Zetwick said. “While we would have liked to have won this week, the outcome shouldn’t hurt us and is something to learn from moving forward.”
On the final day, the Chargers shot the second-lowest team score of the tournament, which moved them up to third place. To Roberts, the team’s performance on the third day was exceptional, even if not enough.
“Third round we gave it a go-to claim some spots; unfortunately, we couldn’t make up the difference for a second round—only enough for third,” Roberts said. “A shame, as we know, we should have taken the title with the form we came in on.”
