The Gustavus Men’s Golf Team was hungry to finish off its fall season with a victorious ending at the MIAC Championships this weekend after placing second twice in their previous two meets.
Ben Hauge and Jacob Pederson emerged as front runners this season, leading the Gusties and shooting averages of 73.2 and 73.5.
This has placed them at the top of the MIAC standings for best two average round scores this season. Max Ullan had trailed for the Gusties with an average of 76.1 and recently had his best meet of the his season earning him MIAC Athlete of the Week honors.
Seniors Carter Czichotzki and Max Savini closed out their last fall seasons strongly, rounding out the rest of the team’s top five averages with 77.7 strokes per round. But they weren’t quite done yet.
This past weekend the Gusties traveled to Jordan, MN to compete in the MIAC Golf Championships.
After day one, the golf team sat in sixth place holding a score of 307. St. Thomas and St. Olaf tied in first with 291.
Pederson continued his strong record by leading the Gusties, shooting a 70 and putting himself in a tie for second place. Ullan and Hauge shot 77 and a 79, respectively, putting them in the top 30 at the end of day one.
Czichotzki and Carlson finished out the top five for the Gusties with scores of 81 and 82, respectively, to close out the first day.
Heading into the second day of competition, Head Coach Scott Moe was optimistic about the team’s chances of taking home a first place finish.
“Day one put us behind the eight ball, but we knew that with 36 holes today, we would have a chance,” Moe said. “We were just nine strokes back with a full round to play which was big for us. We were playing well and got off to another good start and other teams started fading a bit in the last round and making more bogeys. We had a lot of looks, but we just missed a few chances.”
The Gusties returned even stronger on day two, taking on two full rounds due to the anticipation of possible inclement weather.
“We played really well on our final day, shooting just three over in 36 holes in what were fairly tough conditions. Ben put together a great round this afternoon and Jacob had such a fantastic overall tournament. Our conference has so many good players and to win the last few rounds by that margin is impressive. I was just really proud of our battle today,” Moe said.
Hauge finished his season posting scores 76 and 71, and Ullan continued his impressive record with rounds of 73 and 71, to land himself on the All-Championship team with an eighth place finish.
Even though the Gusties performed well, shooting the best total score on both the day’s round, as well as their lowest score of the season with a 288, they were still unable to outdo St. Thomas, who took first in the event for MIAC Championship their second consecutive season.
Pederson however, still came up on top.
The first-year took medalist honors in the event by a four stroke margin, boasting scores of 69 and 71 on the two days, as well as getting the honor of MIAC athlete of the week for the second time this season.
“The overall season was incredible and it can be credited to how welcoming the team and my coaches were in making the transition from highschool to collegiate level golf as well as having strong chemistry at the very beginning of the season all the way until the end,” Pederson said. “It’s so awesome to have the success that I’ve had as a first-year medaling and winning MIAC athlete honors twice in my debut season, while making my team proud.”
The Gusties have closed their fall season but will be back in the Spring to finish what they have started.