Facing a sneak peek of the site and competition level for this spring’s NCAA DII West/South Central Super Regional, the Fort Lewis College men’s golf team responded to the challenge with a seventh-place finish out of 19 teams at the Sam Proal Invitational West/South Central NCAA Regional Preview.
The Skyhawks finished at +1 (569) over 36 challenging holes played at the Pueblo Country Club, highlighted by a -3 (281) during Tuesday’s final round; tied for the third best team score on the day.
Fort Lewis was the third highest-placing RMAC team behind third-place Colorado Mesa (-8) and fifth-place Colorado State University Pueblo (-4).
“I’m very happy with how the guys played and finished. This was a big tournament with the top teams in our region, and the scores showed. We were prepared to play,” said FLC head golf coach Jim Foltz. “Every tournament this fall we’ve gotten better, and this one was no exception. We played better on the par 3s than we have the last few tournaments and tore up the par 5s, which should be our strength because of our length.”
As a team, Fort Lewis finished -14 for the tournament on par 5s and tied for the fourth best score among the 19 teams.
Leading the way for the Skyhawks was senior Darren Edwards, who claimed sole possession of second place with a tournament score of -7 (135) after carding rounds of 67-68. Edwards was -6 for the tournament on par 5s, which tied for the third best score out of 100 players.
The second-place finish tied a career-high for Edwards, who also earned runner-up at the 2021 RMAC Championships.
Edwards moved into a tie for second with a birdie on the fifth (par 5) and added another birdie on the par 5 seventh to briefly tie for the lead and get to -3 on the afternoon.
Oklahoma Christian's Alejandro Armijo retook possession of the lead and held on for the win after a birdie of his own on No. 17 (par 3).
“Darren’s a competitor, so he’s not happy that he came in second. He wants to win,” Foltz said. “We knew from where he was starting today’s shotgun start that he was going to have some holes he could birdie at the end and he did that. It was a great performance. He stayed patient and on a course like this, you have to stay patient.”
The Skyhawks placed three more golfers inside the top 50 in senior Samuel Salisbury, sophomore Nicholas Krantz and freshman Ronald Kildall III.
Salisbury earned a tie for 30th overall with a tournament score of +2 (144), while Krantz finished in a tie for 35th overall at +3 (145) and Kildall close behind in a tie for 49th at +5 (147). All three players carded even-par 71s during Tuesday’s final round to help FLC climb three spots to seventh for the tournament.
Junior lefty Riley Rottschafer completed the Skyhawks’ scorecard with a tie for 82nd overall at +11 (153).
“A performance like this should move us up in the rankings and it should show the guys that we can compete with anyone,” Foltz said. “After having two tournaments at the beginning of the fall where we didn't play like we wanted to, it's not a good feeling and a tough pill to swallow. We took that as a teaching moment and used it as motivation. We wanted to be a team that closed and we did that (Tuesday). We turned a lot of heads and I'm pretty proud of that.”
The Skyhawks will look to build off the momentum and close out the fall semester strong when it heads off to Midwestern State Invitational next Monday and Tuesday, hosted at the Wichita Falls Country Club.
“We're going to be seeing a lot of great teams down in Wichita Falls, and I would really like to see us be in the top seven and challenging for a top-five finish,” Foltz said. “It will all depend on how we start in Round 1. It’s usually very windy in Texas, and that will be a factor for us to overcome, but I think we’’re ready for that.”
