Warriors wrap up fall season, earn sixth in William Penn Classic
By: Waldorf Sports Information Director
OSKALOOSA – The Waldorf University men’s golf team wrapped up the fall season with a sixth-place finish in the William Penn Classic.
Turning in a 36-hole team score of 603 strokes, the Warriors targeted a sub-300 round as their goal. After shooting a 305 during the opening day, they achieved that feat by improving to 298 while closing out the two-day tournament on Monday.
“We broke through a scoring barrier that we knew we could,” Waldorf coach Mark Clouse said. “We did that with some really solid scores throughout.”
Zabdiel Flores led the Warriors, tying for fifth as he fired a 2-over-par score of 142. The sophomore from Guadalajara, Mexico delivered a collegiate career-low performance as he shot back-to-back rounds of 71 on the par-70 layout at Edmundson Golf Course.
“He played a couple of outstanding rounds of golf,” Clouse said. “It was great to see him break through with that type of performance.”
Waldorf senior Hugo Becerra claimed 15th with a 148, carding rounds of 75 and 73. Senior Thomas O’Rourke tied for 21st behind a 152 after putting together rounds of 78 and 74.
“Hugo came through with a nice score [Monday], as did Thomas,” Clouse said.
Senior Chad Hein tied for 43rd for the Warriors with a 161 on rounds of 81 and 80. Waldorf senior Austin Sommer competed as an individual and tied for 47th, shooting a 162 following rounds of 79 and 83. Freshman Justin Pierce finished 50th with a 165, completing rounds of 83 and 82.
Flores remained consistent from one round to the next, and four other Warrior golfers closed out the tournament by shaving strokes off their opening-round scores.
“You had to shoot a good score to help out the team, because everybody was scoring quite well,” Clouse said. “That’s good, because it pushes our expectations higher. That’s the kind of golf I expect them to be able to play on a consistent basis, so it was nice to have it come in this event.”
William Penn University won the team championship with a 573-stroke total to finish one stroke ahead of Culver-Stockton College (574). Graceland University (582) grabbed third to place ahead of Iowa Central Community College (586), which is ranked No. 18 in the latest National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II poll. NCAA Division III’s Iowa Wesleyan University (591) took fifth while Waldorf (603), William Penn’s B Team (622), Briar Cliff University (624), North Iowa Area Community College (625), William Penn’s C Team (655) and NCAA Division III’s Buena Vista University (704) rounded out the team standings in what proved to be a highly-competitive tournament.
“It was a strong field of schools,” Clouse said. “It was just really good competition throughout. Every shot mattered as far as the standings were concerned, so it was a great field to test our games.”
William Penn’s Zachary Chegwidden captured first place, recording a 6-under-par performance of 134. Iowa Central’s Jackson Purdy secured runner-up honors with a 137. Culver-Stockton’s Ryan Keller and Graceland’s Bryce McEachern tied for third with 140-stroke outings to finish two strokes ahead of Flores.
Concluding the fall season with a promising finish, Waldorf now sets it sights on the offseason and begins to prepare for the spring campaign.
“We had a good and solid couple days of play,” Clouse said. “The only negative is that it was our final competition of the fall. We’re playing really great golf at this point. It’d be nice to have another event, but we can use that as momentum heading into the spring.”