Bloomington, Ill. - Not even a Sunday night snow could cool off the red-hot Illinois Central College men's golf team as they won the 2026 Cougar Clash on Thursday at Prairie Vista Golf Course.

Originally scheduled to be held at Weaver Ridge and then changed to Metamora Fields, the weather caused another change in venue to Prairie Vista. The Cougars responded well to the change, setting a new ICC 36-hole scoring record with a 5-under par 571 total to win by three shots over the University of Dubuque.

Morning 18-hole round
The Cougars started strong and immediately jumped to the top of the Leaderboard. NJCAA All-American Trey Boecker opened with a 5-under par 67 while the team  shot a 3-under par 285 and enjoyed a two-shot lead over Heartland and a 10-shot lead over Dubuque heading into Round 2.

Afternoon 18-hole round
The Cougars stayed steady, but Dubuque made a charge. The NCAA D3 Spartans scorched Prairie Vista in the afternoon with a 9-under par 279 as ICC held a narrow one-shot lead with two holes to play. That was when freshman Connor Watson dropped a 20-foot birdie try to give the Cougars some scoreboard daylight. Moments later, freshman Andrew Kuykendall threw a dart to five feet for a birdie 3 to seal the Cougar victory by three shots over Dubuque and eight shots over Region 24 rival Heartland.

Individually 

• Trey Boecker tied for Medalist, but lost in the three-way sudden death playoff and settled for Runner-Up
• Connor Watson earned another Top 5 finishing at 5th
• Brooks Cluver earned a Top 10 finishing 8th

Coach Sean Kennedy Quotes
"Heck of a week. Changing the golf course three times is not the best way to get ready for a tournament. but these Cougars simply ignored the distractions. We held off a hard charging and talented Dubuque squad, and set a new ICC 36-hole scoring record. Andrew Kuykendall was phenomenal, sparking us with a 1-over par 145 and narrowly missing his 1^st Collegiate Top 10 by a single swing. We have a big test next week (March 23-24) at the University of Illinois-Springfield's Dan Salisbury Memorial. The event has four NCAA D2 teams and a strong NCAA D3 team at a terrific venue, Red Tail Run Golf Course in Decatur. It will be a really good event to test our squad."

Individual Scores
Trey Boecker  67 / 72  139
Connor Watson  73 70  143
Brooks Cluver  72 / 72  144
Andrew Kuykendall  73 / 72  145
Drake Kaufman  77 / 73  150

Logan Smith  73 /  73  146
Alex Kuykendall  82 / 80  162

Team scoring: https://scoreboard.clippd.com/tournaments/238424/scoring/team

Individual scoring: https://scoreboard.clippd.com/tournaments/238424/scoring/player

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
March 23-24
at Dan Salisbury Memorial
Hosted by UI-Springfield
Red Tail Run Golf Course
Decatur, IL