Farmington, MO - Despite a 36-degree temperature at start time and hour-long frost delay, the Illinois Central College men's golf team stayed hot to win their second tournament of the spring at the Mineral Area Spring Invitational at Bogey Creek Golf Creek on Thursday. The Cougars, who a week earlier had won the Ron Marshall Spring Fling Championship in Alabama for the second year in a row, took the MAC Spring Invite by sixteen strokes.

The Cougars were tough down the stretch, holding a slim one-shot lead after 14 holes. Drake Kaufman started a late first round surge, making a chip in Eagle 3 on the par five 15th hole.  Brooks Cluver rolled in a late birdie, and Alex Kuykendall closed his opening round with two final birdies to push the Cougar lead from a single stroke with four holes to play into a 12-stroke opening round advantage. Connor Watson opened the Round 2 scoring with birdies on three of his first four holes and the Cougars never looked back in cruising to a 16-shot victory.

Individually, Trey Boecker continued to illustrate why he is currently the #1 ranked player nationally in the latest NJCAA poll as he fired an even par 72 in Round 1 and was one shot off the lead at the halfway point. Boecker found some early Round 2 success and flipped the scoreboard with one hole to play and stood on the 18th tee with a one-shot lead over playing competitor Jose Vidal from Oakland City.  A solid par 4 earned the returning NJCAA All American Boecker a three-shot victory and yet another collegiate medalist trophy.

Coach Kennedy Quotes on the Team's Performance
"Spring golf is difficult. We spent ten hours outside on the golf course today. We started with a frost delay, it was 36 degrees outside when we finally teed off. It finally warmed up to 50 degrees, but then the wind picked up to 15 mph. I watched our seven players battle the weather, battle a 7,000 yard wet golf course that played closer to 7400 yards, and battle seven other teams to win a tournament championship. Also, the weather didn't cooperate the day prior, as we didn't get a practice round and played the course blind. It was simply very satisfying to watch the competitive resolve of our squad on a tough day to play."

Kennedy on Boecker
"This was Trey's 10^th Collegiate Medalist Championship. I stood on the 18^th hole watching Trey and Jose get ready to play that final hole with Trey holding a one-shot lead. Jose was bouncing around optimistically, but I couldn't help but smile. Trey doesn't falter very often with a chance to close out a tournament championship and fifteen minutes later All-American Trey had won again. I miss sophomore All-American Trey Boecker already."  

Final team scoring: https://scoreboard.clippd.com/tournaments/243644/scoring/team

Individual scoring: https://scoreboard.clippd.com/tournaments/243644/scoring/player

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS 
Cougar Spring Preview (36)
Thursday, March 19 at 9:00 am
Metamora Fields, Metamora