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Men’s golf takes seventh at WAC Championships

Written by Ryan Atkins -Argonaut

Friday, 05 May 2006

The Idaho men’s golf team shot a final-round 295 to finish in seventh place at the WAC Championships. The Vandals’ 908 total was one shot better than Utah State and three shots ahead of Louisiana Tech, who rounded out the final standings in the nine-team event. New Mexico State finished with an 861 to take home the WAC crown by five strokes over Fresno State. Despite finishing in the bottom third of the field, coach Brad Rickel expects the tournament to be a nice stepping stone toward next year. “We were very inexperienced. We took only one player who had played in a conference tournament, so I am satisfied with the effort. We built a good base for the future,” Rickel said. Freshman Jacob Koppenberg led the Vandals with a three-day total of 221, good enough for 16th place overall. Despite battling through injuries and personal struggles this season, Koppenberg performed valiantly, and Rickel expects big things from the youngster next season. “I have been really impressed with him, that’s why I recruited him so hard, because I know how good he is,” Rickel said. “He had some really really good moments this year and is capable of shooting really low scores. He has done well for a freshman and his 16th place finish was great.” Thanks in part to Koppenberg’s final-round 73, the Vandals shot an impressive final-day score of 295, but it was too little too late to overcome the team’s struggles from the first two days of the tournament. Rickel attributed some of the team’s struggles to nerves and inexperience, but the cold, windy conditions on day two of the tournament certainly did not help the Vandals’ cause. Playing on a course surrounded by out-of-bounds, the Vandals were plagued by penalty strokes, especially on day one when they collected 10. Despite the poor playing conditions on day two, Idaho was able to close the gap through 15 holes, but fell back on the final three holes of the day. Still, with a young up-and-coming team, Rickel sees a bright future for the Vandal golf program. Despite saying goodbye to seniors Dylan Hill, Brett Kresbsbach and Christian Akau, the team is bringing in only one recruit, which should allow the young core of the Vandal team to continue their improvement next year. Rickel sounded confident the team can close the gap in the competitive WAC next year. “A lot of the top players in the conference are seniors, and all our young guys are coming up and ready to play, so I believe we will be in the top third of the WAC next year,” Rickel said. To prepare for the task ahead of them, Vandal players must compete in a minimum of five tournaments this summer while adhering to a personal workout schedule. After talking about his team’s performance at the WAC Championships, Rickel reflected on the team’s first season in the conference as a whole. “We did not perform as well as we could have, but really I just wanted to gain experience for our young guys and we did that. We look good for next season.” Add as favorites (32) | Views: 917 Be first to comment this article Write Comment Please keep the topic of messages relevant to the subject of the article. Personal verbal attacks will be deleted. Please don't use comments to plug your web site. Such material will be removed. Just ensure to *Refresh* your browser for a new security code to be displayed prior to clicking on the 'Send' button. Keep in mind that the above process only applies if you simply entered the wrong security code. Name: Title: Comment: