A strong showing from freshman Drew Alexander (McCordsville, Ind. / Hamilton Southeastern) helped the Valparaiso University men’s golf team secure a Top 10 finish at the Derek Dolenc Invitational, which was hosted by SIU Edwardsville this week in Madison, Ill. Alexander finished in fifth place in a field comprised of 96 players, carding a 54-hole score of 211.

How It Happened

• Alexander rounded out the event by stroking a 74 on Tuesday. He finished six strokes behind the individual medalist, fellow Missouri Valley Conference player Ethan Brue of Bradley.
• Freshman Brett Seward (Aurora, Ill. / Aurora Christian) was Valpo’s top performer in Tuesday’s final round, posting a 73 to finish at 225 (+12) for the tournament, a score that placed him in a tie for 39^th overall.
• Sophomore Matthew McCarthy (O’Fallon, Ill. / Althoff Catholic) and senior Michael Doherty (Lisle, Ill. / Naperville North) both finished at 233 for the event, tying for 69^th. Doherty had a solid third round, turning in a 78.
• Sophomore Jeremy Wu (Medford, Ore. / St. Mary’s) matched his best score of the tournament with a 78 on the event’s final day.

Inside the Round

• The Crusaders finished 10^th in the 17-team field. They edged out 11^th-place Nicholls by four strokes while finishing just three strokes in back of Murray State for ninth.
• Valpo finished ahead of a pair of Missouri Valley Conference schools, outdoing UNI and Loyola.
• Seward’s 73 was the best score of his young Crusader career.
• Alexander finished with a 54-hole score of 211, which is tied for fifth in program history. His mark of two strokes under par places him in a tie for seventh in program history in 54-hole tournament low in relation to par.
• The last Valpo freshman to finish in the top five in an event was Zach Cutler on Sept. 23, 2014, when he was the medalist of the CSU Cougar Classic.
• Valpo’s best performance was on Par 4s, averaging a 4.21 and tying for sixth in the tournament.
• The Crusaders had the sixth-most birdies among participating teams with 39.
• Alexander had 14 birdies, tied with two others for the most of anyone in the tournament.

Thoughts from Head Coach Dave Gring

“"I was pleased with the start of our final round and the team played the first third of the round pretty well, including some tough Par 3s. We struggled during the middle third of our round, with a lot of bogeys and not enough birdies and pars. The guys were playing hard the final third of the round, but I could tell the 92 degree heat was taking its toll."  

"Our shot execution simply wasn't there today. There were numerous holes where the guys had a particular shot in mind and it simply went a different direction. We didn't hit as many greens in regulation as we needed, despite hitting the fairways off the tee pretty well. Missing the greens put more pressure on the chipping and we couldn't convert the up and downs."

"It's very exciting for our entire team to see one of our freshman match a program record in his fourth competitive round of his college career. Drew had an awesome tournament, finishing Top 10 individually for his second consecutive tournament of the year and Top 5 in this week's tournament. His Par 3 and Par 5 scoring was exceptional and really set the table for a solid tournament."

Up Next

The Crusaders will be back on the course for the Firestone Invitational on Monday, Oct. 2 and Tuesday, Oct. 3. The event will be held at Firestone CC in Akron, Ohio.