An enjoyable and successful season-long journey for the Valparaiso University men’s golf team will soon reach its most thrilling moments yet.

The Beacons will participate in the Missouri Valley Conference Championship, a three-day event with 18 holes each day beginning on Sunday at the par-72, 7014-yard Country Club of Paducah in Paducah, Ky.

The team, picked second in the MVC preseason poll, has hopes of continuing a year filled with successes that has featured 10 top-five team finishes in 12 tournaments including six top-2 finishes (five runners-up and one team title). Entering this week, the team owns a season scoring average of 292.35, a mark that is in position to set the program record for single-season scoring average.

Season highlights include winning the team title at the Butler Spring Invitational in addition to shattering the program’s 36-hole tournament scoring record by 20 strokes with a team score of 560 at the Twin Oaks Intercollegiate. Valpo posted a 54-hole team score of 855 at the Valpo Fall Invitational that ranks second in the program record book. Furthermore, the Beacons posted the second-best 18-hole round in program history, a 278 (-6) at the Twin Oaks Intercollegiate on March 22.

The team, which has boasted eight Missouri Valley Conference Golfer of the Week awards this year, has continued the program’s tradition of excellence in the classroom as well. The Beacons own a 3.52 cumulative grade point average and had a 3.55 team GPA during the fall semester, the best among men’s sports at Valpo. 

The defending MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and Elite 17 Award Winner, Caleb VanArragon (Blaine, Minn. / Blaine) has won six MVC weekly awards this season to lift his career total to 11, becoming just the fifth golfer in conference history to accumulate 11 or more weekly honors. He carded par or better in 19 of 31 rounds this season en route to a scoring average of 71.19 that is in position to break his own program record. At season’s end, VanArragon will own the top three spots in the program’s modern record book in terms of single-season scoring average. VanArragon was the individual medalist at the Spirit Hollow Fall Shootout and Dove Mountain Intercollegiate.

Freshman Anthony Delisanti (Sanborn, N.Y. / Niagara Wheatfield) has burst onto the scene this season with the team’s second-best scoring average at 73.19. He tied atop the player leaderboard in a 98-player field at the Butler Spring Invitational, helping lift the Beacons to a team victory. After that event, he was named the MVC Golfer of the Week. Delisanti is in position to rank fourth in program history in single-season scoring average, behind only VanArragon’s three seasons. Entering the conference championship, he owns the best scoring average among MVC newcomers. The rookie has posted six top-10 finishes in 12 tournaments including four of his last five events.

A local Northwest Indiana product, Yianni Kostouros (Crown Point, Ind. / Crown Point [Ball State]) possesses the team’s third-best scoring average at 74.26 after transferring into the program prior to this season. The highlight of his strong year to this point came at the Twin Oaks Intercollegiate, when he finished as the individual runner-up in an 89-player field and tied the modern program record for 36-hole tournament score at 137 (-5). He had a career-low 67 (-4) in Round 1 at Twin Oaks, tying for the sixth-best 18-hole round in modern program history. Kostouros earned MVC Golfer of the Week honors for his performance at Twin Oaks.

In his fourth season with the program, Garrett Willis (Fort Wayne, Ind. / Homestead) ranks in the top 10 in program history in career scoring average at 74.49. He has turned in three top-10 finishes this year and owns a season scoring average of 75.11, fourth on the team. Willis was named to the 2019-20 MVC Scholar-Athlete First Team and received 2020-21 MVC Scholar-Athlete Honorable Mention.

Sophomore Mason Bonn (Sherwood, Ore. / Sherwood) and freshman Sam Booth (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel) have also been key contributors this season. Bonn holds a 76.28 scoring average, followed by Booth at 76.48. Booth has stroked par or better in seven of his 31 rounds as a rookie. Senior Charlie Toman (Chardon, Ohio / Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin) has golfed in three events, while freshman Grant Norman (Fort Wayne, Ind. / Blackhawk) has appeared in five events this season.

Play is slated to begin at 9 a.m. on each of the three days. A link to live scoring via BirdieFire is available on ValpoAthletics.com.