Aggies rattle to 6th in Texas

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (October 23) – The Cameron Aggie men’s golf team officially wrapped up their fall season this afternoon at the St. Mary’s Rattler/Bruce Williams Memorial Invitational in San Antonio, Texas. The event was Cameron’s final of the 2007 athletic season and was played at the Pecan Valley Golf Club. The Aggies took 6th place out of the sixteen teams with an overall team score of 613 (315-298).

“Our whole tournament was pretty much determined by the way we played yesterday (Monday). We only made four birdies all day and we played the par-fives at seven over. Those two things together really doomed us,” Head Coach Jerry Hrnciar said. “We had a chance to really do good until the last few holes yesterday. Today we played much better.”

The tournament was originally scheduled to be 54 holes, but was shortened to 36 due to inclement weather. The first round was finished this morning and was followed immediately by the second round. Texas Wesleyan University won the team title with a two-round score of 594 (303-291), and Colby Shrum of the University of Central Oklahoma won the individual title with a 142 (72-70). A total of 84 golfers competed in the event.

Sophomore Michael Lee led the Aggies with a 4th place finish. He finished with a two-round score of 146 (77-69). His second round 69 was the second-best round of the tournament. Lee also led the tournament in par four scoring average (4.05, +1), finished with the third-best par three scoring average (3.13, +1), and totaled the third-most birdies (5).

“Obviously Michael had a good round,” Coach Hrnciar said. “He hit ten fairways and eleven greens which is pretty good. He also got up and in seven out of eight times, and was exceptionally good when it came to that. Everybody else played pretty steady.”

Junior Peter Svajlen finished the tournament in a tie for 16th place with an overall score of 153 (78-75). He also tied for the most pars in the tournament with 26.

Robbe Trout, a sophomore from Whitesboro, Texas, also had a solid tournament for the Aggies. He finished with a two-round score of 155 (79-76). Trout also had the third-best par four scoring average (4.14, +3).

“We didn’t particularly help ourselves here. The only thing we gained was a win over Southwestern (Oklahoma State),” Coach Hrnciar said. “We were so close, except for a few shots here and there. We pretty much kind of held the spot we had going into the tournament.”

Sophomore Brett Leavell finished the tournament with an overall score of 159 (81-78), good enough to tie him at 47th place. Like Lee, Leavell also recorded the third-most birdies (5).

Cane Shumaker, the Aggie squad’s only senior, recorded a total of 165 strokes (83-82) as each Aggie golfer improved their scores from round one to round two. Shumaker finished the tournament in a tie for 65th place.

As mentioned previously, this tournament ended the fall season for the Aggie golfers.

“We underachieved (this season),” Coach Hrnciar said. “We have a lot of talent, and hopefully we can work on our weaknesses in the offseason and come out strong. We will need to in order to qualify for Regionals. The talent is there though.”

Cameron begins their spring season next February with the St. Edward’s Invitational tournament at the Circle C Country Club in Austin, Texas.