The Valparaiso University men’s golf team has enjoyed a special – and in terms of the program’s history, unprecedented – run of success over the last several seasons, about that there’s little doubt. Although the temptation to bask in the glory of the trophies, records and achievements exists, the Beacons are laser-focused on the task at hand.

With the program’s most important tournament of the season on the horizon, head coach Dave Gring’s team is taking a business-as-usual approach in preparation for the 2024 Missouri Valley Conference Championship, a 54-hole, three-day event that begins on Sunday. Missouri State will host the tournament at the par-72, 7060-yard Club at Porto Cima course in Sunrise Beach, Mo.

Scouting the Team Field

The Beacons were picked to finish second in the Missouri Valley Conference preseason poll behind only Illinois State, a unanimous favorite to win the league crown. The Beacons have finished as the tournament runner-up each of the last two seasons, the league’s lone team with top-2 finishes in each of the last two years. The MVC has featured three different team champions over the last three years with Loyola winning in 2021, Southern Illinois in 2022 and Illinois State in 2023. Last season, Valpo competed in the National Golf Invitational (NGI), the program’s first postseason appearance since 2013.

“Our team comes into the championship with a lot of confidence and momentum,” head coach Dave Gring said. “We’ve had six tournaments this spring season including four consecutive coming into this weekend. The guys have a really good practice and competitive rhythm over the past five weeks, so I’m excited to see how this translates to this championship. We finished as runner-up the past two years, so we have a good chip on our shoulder to prepare well and play competitive golf.”

Writing the Final Chapter of a Historic Career

Someday, Caleb VanArragon will accept his place among the finest student-athletes to ever represent Valparaiso University in competition as the fifth-year senior is an eventual sure-fire choice for the Valpo Athletics Hall of Fame. The four-time All-MVC First Team pick, three-time MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Year and three-time Elite 17 Award Winner has a chance to add even more hardware this week as he enters the MVC Championship ranked No. 65 in the nation, the highest ranked golfer in the league. VanArragon, who earned an at-large NCAA Regional bid a year ago, is having his best season yet, boasting a scoring average of 69.25 that will break his own program record and improving his program-record career scoring average to 71.24. He has won medalist honors on four occasions, enjoyed six top-2 finishes and boasted seven top 10s in his 10 tournaments during his fifth and final collegiate campaign. He was named the MVC Golfer of the Week six times this season, bringing his conference-record total to 19 career MVC Golfer of the Week awards. VanArragon was tabbed a First-Team Academic All-American by College Sports Communicators last season.

Shooting for a Three-Peat

Not many teams in the history of college golf have had the luxury of a two-time defending conference champion at the No. 2 spot in the lineup, but that’s the case for the Beacons with junior Anthony Delisanti. The reigning MVC Player of the Year boasts an impressive 70.88 scoring average over 25 rounds this season. He has won MVC Championship medalist honors and automatic NCAA Regional berths in each of his first two collegiate campaigns, doing so in very different ways. Last year featured a dominant performance of 200 that shattered an MVC Championship record for 54-hole tournament score, winning the tournament by four strokes and outdoing the previous record that had stood for 73 years. That came after his 2022 win that saw him post six birdies and three pars in the final nine holes of Round 3 to finish those holes in 30 strokes (-6). A birdie on the final hole helped him edge MVC Golfer of the Year Matthis Besard by one stroke for the victory.

Rounding Out the Lineup

Although VanArragon and Delisanti have been cemented in the top two spots, a variety of lineup combinations have accounted for positions No. 3 through No. 5 this season. Mason Bonn, Adam Melliere, Sam Booth, Owen Sander and Elliot Lee are all averaging between 75.00 and 76.10. Valpo enters the MVC Championship with a team scoring average of 289.11, in position to improve its team scoring average for the sixth consecutive season and break the modern program record for team scoring average that was set last season at 290.08.

“The guys have played very well all season, with almost our entire roster having a better average score than last year,” Gring said. “They prepare well for every tournament and we have a good plan in place to manage the course. We simply need to go out and execute. We’re excited for the opportunity to compete in this championship and we’re ready to get after it”

Following Along

After Saturday’s practice round, the teams will golf 18 holes each day on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Click here to follow the live scoring via GolfStat throughout the tournament. This marks the second time Valpo’s program will have played in the MVC Championship at The Club at Porto Cima, as the venue also played host to the event in 2019. The venue, recognized as one of the best private courses in America, is a Jack Nicklaus designed facility that opened in 2000. Tee times will begin off Hole 1 on Sunday at 9:30 a.m. The second round will start with tee times off the first and 10^th holes on Monday at 9 a.m. The final round gets underway at 8 a.m. on Tuesday with tee times beginning on Hole 1 and Hole 10.

“The golf course is tremendous and it will be an excellent test for us,” Gring said. “The Jack Nicklaus designed course demands accuracy off the tees, with fairways sloping away both directions. We’re going to need to manage the course well, picking our lines off the tee and not short-siding ourselves around the greens. Our short and mid-irons are going to need to have good proximity and we need to putt well from six to 10 feet. If we can execute well in these areas during the championship, we will have good results.”