Bedford, PA. - In their final regular season tune-up, the Wheeling University Men's Golf team traveled to the Bedford Springs Resort on Monday for the first round of the Bedford Spring Invitational. The team combined to shoot a 300 over the first 18 holes of competition, finishing tied for third in the field. It was a pair of career days that led the Cardinals, putting them in position to compete for a championship over the final 18 holes.
Leading the effort for the Cardinals was freshman Elias Ekenes-Fosback, who set a career-best shooting an even par (72) in the round. Things did not start the way he wanted them to, shooting a bogey on hole one, but he stabilized through the rest of the front nine. He would hit his first par on hole two and responded with seven consecutive pars before finishing at +2 for the front nine. For as consistent as he was on the front nine, Ekenes-Fosback kicked things into high gear as he took the turn. He was sitting at +3 entering hole 13, where he hit his first Birdie of the day. He responded with three straight pars, and entered hole 17 sitting at +2. He would quickly erase those two strokes, shooting birdie on both hole 17 and 18 to get him back to even to round out the day. It moved him to fourth overall in the field, and just two strokes back of Glenville State's Hector Arriaga and West Liberty's Adam Gill for the top spot.
Following right behind him was sophomore Lodin Femoen, who shot a PR of his own finishing +2 (74) for the round. For the freshman, it was the front nine that saw him thrive, shooting –1 with two birdies through the first four holes. The front nine would end with four straight pars and a birdie on hole nine to hit the turn at –2. His strong start was enough to keep him in the top 20 of the event and, despite adding four strokes on the back nine, he was able to finish 13th overall with a 74. Zak Collins would round out the top three for the Cardinals, shooting a 76 (+4). After getting behind three strokes early, the sophomore would finish the front nine with three consecutive birdies to get back to even par at the turn. Like Femoen, the back nine would see Collins add four strokes to his score, finishing with five pars, and he would round out the day sitting at +4 heading into round two.
The final scoring Cardinals was Sean Dobson who finished the first round at 78 (+6), keeping each of the top four Cardinals under the 80-point mark. He would shoot two birdies in the round, one each on the front nine and the back nine, with the front nine being his top finish at +2/ The final Cardinal to factor into the team score was Troy Loughry, who, finished at +9 (81) for the round. His lone birdie of the round would come on hole 17, while he rounded things out with eight pars. Luis Alvarez would round out the day for Wheeling, competing as an individual in the event. He would equal Loughry's number on the day, shooting an 81 (+9) through 18 holes to round out the day. He would shoot a pair of birdies on the back nine, hitting one on hole 10 and one on hole 15 to round out the effort.
The Wheeling University Men's Golf team returns to action for round two of the Bedford Springs Invitational, with tee times beginning at 10 AM.
