Ags fall from 1st to 3rd at ATU Classic
DANVILLE, Arkansas (March 21) – The nationally ranked (No. 9) Cameron Aggie men’s golf team took part in the Arkansas Tech University Collegiate Classic golf tournament over the weekend at the Chamberlyne Country Club in Danville, Arkansas. The Ags began the tournament solidly finishing with a combined score of 288, good enough for a three-stroke, first place lead. The team had a rougher outing on Tuesday, going into the clubhouse with a team score of 309. Their combined two-day output (597) landed the team in third place overall.
“I’m not too pleased with our performance,” Head Coach Jerry Hrnciar said. “The first day we played good golf and I was real pleased. It was a very long course with challenging greens, but I thought we were really ready to start playing as good as we did in the fall season.”
The Aggies finished the tournament just two strokes behind second place Arkansas Tech University (the host school) and only seven strokes behind eventual winner Central Missouri. The event proved to be extremely close as all seven teams competing finished within thirty-four strokes of each other.
“I was just shocked yesterday. I thought we were ready to go,” Coach Hrnciar said. “We lost shots somewhere but we are better than that. We can’t seem to close out a tournament. All of our players were mentally dead; not just one or two of them.”
CU had a trio of golfers at the top as senior Matt Trammel (71-78), sophomore Peter Svajlen (71-78), and freshman Michael Lee (72-77) all finished in a tie for 7th place. They each finished with a two-day score of 149. Trammel and Svajlen were actually in a tie for the lead after the first round.
Freshman Brett Leavell was the only other Aggie to finish in the top twenty overall. He finished with a two-day combined score of 150 (74-76), good enough for a tie at 14th place overall.
“Brett (Leavell) played better than he has been playing all year,” Coach Hrnciar said. “He had the lowest second round score on the team, which is something he has been in position to do all season. He has worked really hard.”
Junior Cane Shumaker also had a strong tournament finishing in 30th place overall. His two-round score came in at 156 (78-78).
Sophomore Cade Lewis, playing as an independent, was the lone Aggie to shoot better on the second day than on the first. He finished in a tie for 18th place with a combined score of 152 (77-75).
“Cade (Lewis) hit the ball better than he has since he has been at Cameron,” Coach Hrnciar said. “It is very encouraging to see him hit the ball that well.”
Freshman Justin Jang, also playing independently, came in 33rd place with a two-day score of 159 (80-79).
The Aggies are off this weekend and next travel to Florence, Alabama to take part in the Pre-Regional Invitational from April 1-3. The event will be played at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, also the site of this year’s NCAA Super Regional Tournament.
“We need to work on our short game and are just going to start preparing for the next tournament,” Coach Hrnciar said. “We will try to gain more confidence because we have lost it all. We need to work on both the mental and physical aspects because everyone was spotty at best.”
