Wheeling, W. Va. - After two days and 36 holes of competition, the Wheeling University Men's Golf team has their first tournament of the season in the books. Wheeling would finish as the top Mountain East Conference (MEC) Team in competition, taking fourth overall in the tournament field. It was a pair of big bounce back efforts that led the way for the Cardinals as they had two golfers crack the top 20 of the event.
The biggest bounce back on the second day of competition came from sophomore Zak Collins, who dropped six strokes off his day one score. He shot a 71 (E) for the round and finished out his effort with a two-day score of 147 (+5) for the event. Collins would begin his day with a bang, setting up on hole three and hitting an Eagle to start things off. He would follow that up with three more pars and was sitting at –2 after four holes. He added one stroke to his score on hole seven, but finished the front nine strong with back-to-back birdies on holes eight and nine. He was sitting at +3 as he entered the back nine and, after a bogey on hole 10, he would hit six straight pars to keep things rolling. He finished the back nine the same way he finished the front nine, with a pair of birdies, before bogeying the final hole to finish at even par.
The Cardinal's leader for the event would be graduate student Troy Loughry, who shot 72 (+1) in the final round and brought his tournament score to 143 (+1). After starting out at +1 on his first hole, Loughry came back with a birdie on hole three, and hit par on four of the final five holes. He would add two more birdies on the back nine on holes 16 and 18, to bring his score to +1 for the day. He was the lone Cardinal to crack the top 10 of the event, earning him a spot on the Wheeling Invitational All-Tournament Team. The final Cardinal to take strokes off their day one score was Elias Ekenes-Fosback, who shot a 72 (+1) in the round bring his two-day total to 147. Like Collins, Ekenes-Fosback would shoot Eagle on hole 3 before hitting par the rest of the way on the front nine. He added one birdie on the back nine to round out the big day
Rounding out the varsity team on day two were Lodin Femoen and Sean Dobson, who finished their event shooting 75 (+4) and 76 (+5) over their final 18 holes. Femoen would hit his birdies on the back nine, but played better on the front nine where he finished +2 over nine holes. Dobson also had a successful front nine, where he shot just +1, before ending his day with a +4 over the final nine holes.
The Wheeling University Men's Golf Team returns to action on Monday, September 8th, when they take on day one of the University of Charlestons Golden Eagle Invitational.
