The Valparaiso University men’s golf team polished off a top-five finish in a competitive 15-team field at the Hoosier Collegiate Invite on Monday. Sophomore Caleb VanArragon (Blaine, Minn. / Blaine) carded the squad’s top score of the day on the par-71, 7565-yard Pfau Course at Indiana University.

How It Happened

• VanArragon turned in a 73 (+2) in Round 2 for his best round of the event, completing the weekend with a 54-hole score of 221, which was tied for 18^th.
• Freshman Anthony Delisanti (Saborn, N.Y. / Niagara Wheatfield) completed a top-20 showing in his first collegiate event. He posted a 76 to finish the weekend at 219 (+6), placing 16^th of 84.
• Yianni Kostouros (Crown Point, Ind. / Crown Point [Ball State]) stroked a 75 on Monday to finish tied with VanArragon for second on the team at 221. He tied for 18^th on the individual leaderboard.
• Charlie Toman (Chardon, Ohio / Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin) finished the event at 229 (t-45) after carding a 76 in Round 3.
• The Beacons edged sixth-place Memphis by two strokes and outdid a seventh-place tie between Ball State, Lipscomb and Miami (Ohio) by four strokes to hang on to a top-5 finish in the event. Valpo carded a 300 in the final round to complete the weekend at 884, behind only Cincinnati, No. 10 Illinois, Indiana and Illinois State. The Bearcats and Illini finished tied atop the team leaderboard at 858, while Indiana’s Drew Salyers earned medalist honors at 208.

Inside the Rounds

• Valpo finished with the best par-5 scoring average in the field at 4.78 (-10).
• The Beacons had 36 birdies in the tournament, led by VanArragon with nine and Delisanti with eight.
• Three of the four teams that finished ahead of Valpo on the team leaderboard were NCAA Regional teams last season including an Illinois team that is ranked 10^th nationally.
• Valpo bested three conference competitors in the event, including defending MVC champion Loyola.

Thoughts from Head Coach Dave Gring

“Our final round today was the tale of two nines: We had a solid start and played the front nine at +3, but we really struggled with our shot execution and played the back nine at +13. We needed a strong finish to the round, like both of our rounds yesterday, but we simply didn’t get it done.  On the other hand, I’m very pleased with our team performance for the first tournament of the season with three of our five starters having never played for us before.”

“One of the primary challenges with the golf course is that it commands good shots all of the time. If you miss fairways or greens in regulation, you are going to pay for it. If you short-side around the greens, you are going to pay for it. If you’re too aggressive with your putts, you're going to pay for it. We had some costly holes on the back nine that primarily resulted from poor tee shots. Those poor tee shots led to double and triple bogeys and we had six of those on the back nine. Each of the guys kept grinding through the round and the effort was certainly evident from each player.”

“One of the primary benefits of competition is that it shows you exactly what areas need work. We are going to get back to it at practice and really concentrate on those areas for improvement.  The team is already looking forward to our home event in two weeks and hosting a good field at our home course.”

Up Next

The next action for the Beacons will come at the Valpo Fall Invitational, which is slated to begin on Monday, Sept. 20 at Sand Creek Country Club in Chesterton, Ind. A link to live scoring via BirdieFire will be available on ValpoAthletics.com.