NORMAL — The Carthage College men's golf team competed at the Illinois Wesleyan Invitational on April 4–5, finishing with a team score of 621 (316+305) at Weibring Golf Club.


Tanner Angelstad led the Firebirds, tying for 18th overall with a two-round score of 147 after consistent rounds of 74 and 73.

James Tyrrell followed, tying for 96th place with a total score of 154. Tyrrell posted rounds of 79 and 75 across the two-day event.

Ethan Frasch, competing as an individual, tied for 150th with a 159 (82+77), improving by five strokes in the second round.

Tayt Hager landed in a tie for 173rd after carding an 82 in Round 1 and a 79 in round two to finish with a 161.

Nick Barry followed closely, tying for 188th with identical rounds of 81 to total 162.

Alex Lilly rounded out the Firebirds' top-six performances, tying for 203rd with a 165 (87+78), improving by nine strokes from the first to second round.

The two-day tournament featured a competitive 38-team field and included 228 individual golfers.



"This is THE top tournament of the year of anywhere in the Midwest. With that comes a bit of pressure that we only experience in the Conference Tournament. Unfortunately, that extra pressure got to us early, way too much on day one, and although we eventually got our feet under us and started playing more like ourselves, then the weather attacked. It dropped to about 40 degrees, was raining and even hailing sideways, and because most teams were done playing their 18 holes already, we had to keep playing in order to get the round in. I've been coaching golf for over 30 years, and no other weather compares. At the same time, had we handled the pressure of the weekend right away on hole one, those last three holes in the freezing hurricane wouldn't have impacted us so much.

What I was really impressed with was that not one of our guys took the weather excuse, which would have been kind of like the basketball player blaming a loss on the refs. They knew their nervousness early was the true issue, and they owned it.

For a team that shot 20-25 strokes worse than expected, I honestly am not disappointed. We have been busting our butt to keep improving, and I think this will give us that little extra juice as we set our goals."

• Carthage hosts the Firebird Spring Invite which is Thursday, April 10 at Meadowbrook Country Club.