Pack men take third at NW Regional Head-to-Head

Mankato, Minn. - The CSU-Pueblo men's golf team turned in an impressive performance at the NW Regional Head-to-Head tournament, finishing third as a team, and second among Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference teams.

The ThunderWolves shot +47 as a team, only 12 strokes behind conference rival, UCCS. The Pack finished one shot ahead of Western New Mexico, who won the tournament held in Pueblo last week.

"We're real happy about we've done in this tournament," Pack coach Ray Makloski said. "The conditions here were different from what we are used to, and we handled ourselves well."

The Pack was in second place after the first round, 10 shots behind eventual champion St. Cloud State, and four shots ahead of UCCS. Windy conditions came for the second round, and CSU-Pueblo golfers dropped off a bit while UCCS' entrants caught fire.

"When things got windier, our scores fell off," Makloski said. "But we were able play solid."

Senior Casey Brock paced the ThunderWolf golfers, finishing fourth with a +6, 10 shots off the pace of tournament champion, Theo Frentzos of St. Cloud State.

Sophomore David Duarte finished 11th with a +12, thanks mostly to a strong third round in which his -2 70 was the best score of the day.

Another impressive finisher was freshman Ben Scully, who gave the Pack their third best score with a 15th place +13.

"I'm very proud of job Ben did," Makloski said. "It is so much more humid here and the ball flies shorter, and he adjusted to the differences very well."

Other Pack finishers included Derek Carleo and Ray Maruyama, who both finished in 46th place with a +23.