For the first time in 20 years, the men’s golf team has finished in the top three at the Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) championships this past weekend. The golf team sent five players, and they have been gearing up for this tournament since the fall season. According to the team, they have worked extremely hard to get to this tournament and solidify a third-place finish in the conference. 

First-Year Alexandre Thery earned a tie for 10th overall. With this, he claimed the first All-CCIW honor in 17 years for the Vikings. The First-Year finished with a total of 222, with round scores of 73, 75 and 74. 

“We are very happy with the third-place finish we got as a team,” Thery said. “It gives us a lot of hope for next year as we didn’t have a lot of experience this year. Four out of the five players played their first conference round this year.”

The team has had a younger team than they have ever had before. The men’s golf team consists of 14 First-Year golfers, which makes up more than half of the team. With being new to the team, there have been some learning curves that the First-Years have easily conquered with more experienced players, like sophomore Noah Ehlenbach. 

“I think that our team is the best and most skilled that it’s been a really, really long time,” Ehlenbach said. “It’s a smaller learning curve than people expect for conference. I think they’re gonna come and do what they’ve been doing in the off-season, and it’s not going to be much of a problem for them.”

While some of the golfers traveled to the CCIW championships, the rest of the team stayed back and supported from campus. Though despite not qualifying for the championship, some still drove out to the green to watch their teammates in action. 

Senior Daniel Ford has gone down to the CCIW championships a few times himself over his past four years on the team. Before the guys departed for championships, he gave them some pieces of advice to keep their spirits up and keep playing the game. 

“My advice to them was that it’s a long tournament,” Ford said. “You’re not fully out of it until the last hole.”

The golfers had some tough competition in Carthage, this weekend, coming close to beating them for a second-place finish. They are one of the top teams to beat for our Vikings in the men’s golf conference. To not beat themselves up, senior David Schwartz said that they need to just keep smiling. 

Despite their third-place finish, Schwartz said he wants the team to be excited about their work.

“I think just staying happy and rebounding is a way I could see the team not be caught sleeping,” Schwartz said.