Ty Travis and Michael Johnson led the Weber State University Men’s Golf Team to a 12th place finish in the Gene Miranda Falcon Invitational, hosted by the Air Force Academy.
The two freshmen each shot a total of 221 for the tournament, leading the Wildcats to a 12th place finish out of the 19 teams who competed in the tournament in Colorado.
The Wildcats started out well, and shot a team-total of 290 and 292 in the first and second rounds of the tournament. In the third round, the team struggled, short shooting 298 in the final round.
“We are a pretty young team,” said Head Coach David Kearl. “We had two pretty good first rounds and a little disappointing in the final round. But I’m happy with the overall performance of the team and we had some outstanding performances from Ty and Michael.”
University of Nevada Las Vegas finished the tournament in a playoff round with second round leader University of Colorado. UNLV and UC both shot a final round of 283, placing them in first place. In the playoff round, UNLV shot a two-under par to win the playoff and the tournament with both teams finishing at 844 in regulation. Colorado State University rounded out the top three.
UNLV’s Kevin Penner and Ball State University’s T.J. Carpenter each shot a seven-under-par 209 to win the individual title. Both Penner and Carpenter were considered co-medalists of the tournament. Kevin Kring of UC and Zahkal Brown of CSU finished in second place, each one shot behind the winners.
WSU came in 13 shots ahead of the University of Utah, and also finished ahead of Southern Utah University, Utah State University and American Sky Conference-rival, Northern Idaho College.
“We beat out the other Utah teams in the state and it felt really good to see the guys playing, even though we have quite a few new players,” said Coach Kearl.
WSU’s Johnson and Travis, who were Eagle High School teammates, took 43rd overall, with one-over-par first round of 73. Travis shot a 76 in the second round and finished the third round with an even-par 72. Johnson shot a 74 in both the second and third rounds of the tournament.
Senior Alex Sutton and sophomore Jordan Herzog finished in a tie for 56th with eight-over-par totals of 224, while junior Matt Wahlen took 62nd with a total of 225.
“We didn’t expect much from Jordan this fall, because he recently came home from his mission and hasn’t played for the last two years, but I was very pleased with his performance,” said Coach Kearl.
The Wildcats will look to continue their progress and improvement through the fall with continual key performances from their young players.
“We hope to continue to build on the success that we have already had this season with great performances from our young guys, and look to defend our title from last year,” said Coach Kearl.
The team will participate in the Bronco Invitational held at Boise State on Sept. 26-27, which will be a homecoming for both Johnson and Travis. The invitational is being played in their hometown of Eagle, Idaho.
