PEORIA — Carthage College men's golf placed fourth at the 2025 CCIW Men's Golf Championship, hosted by the Firebirds at Weaver Ridge Golf Club from May 1-3. The team finished with a three-round score of 894 (308-295-291), closing the weekend with its strongest round.
Tanner Angelstad led the Firebirds with a fourth-place individual finish, carding a 213 (71-70-72) across the three days for All-Conference honors.
Alex Lilly joined Angelstad in the top 20, finishing 16th with a 225 after closing with his lowest round of the tournament, a 72. Ethan Frasch and James Tyrrell tied for 23rd at 228. Frasch overcame an opening 81 with rounds of 73 and 74, while Tyrrell posted 79-76-73.
Tayt Hager closed out the Firebirds' scoring with a 240 (82-82-76), placing 41st.
James Tyrrell was the winner of this year's CCIW RESPECT award for Carthage. The CCIW RESPECT Award honors one student-athlete per varsity team each season who exemplifies Responsibility, Enthusiasm, Service, Pride, Excellence, Collaboration, and Trust.
"An old adage says you cannot win a tournament on the first day, but you can lose it. Unfortunately, I think we were a fairly accurate example of that.
In a tournament where the unanimous favorite runs away and hides while the other eight teams fail to put any pressure on them, the team most equipped to play well enough to make Wesleyan feel some heat struggled under the bright lights of day one. As the weekend progressed, we proved why we were picked 2nd in our strong conference, but we dug such a hole on day one that our success on days two and three didn't really matter.
Tanner is so fun to watch. He loves to compete, he has done such a nice job of building all his skills over the last four years, and the better the competition the more focused and driven he gets. He capped a very strong career with 3 rounds that truly match his story. It was the second time he earned 1st Team All CCIW, and he should be very proud.
I felt bad for Alex. I think he built this weekend up as his last opportunity to prove how good he has gotten, and when he started slow, the pressure got to be a bit too much. He really has developed an impressive skill set, you won't find many anywhere that outwork him, he is completely invested, and he was ready to put it all on display. Unfortunately sometimes when you want something so badly, the internal pressure ends up holding you back. By day three, he was finally able to relax, and even though the putter let him down, his game was excellent, and he showed glimpses of his excellent all-around game.
As we wrap up our season, we have a lot to be very proud of. It is so fun to see how we continue to climb in the rankings, to see how hard we work, to see how passionate we are, especially with 8 of our top 10 players being freshmen or sophomores. However, we are gonna really miss Alex and Tanner, because of their excellence, their leadership, and how they mean so much to our perfect team chemistry. With some very strong recruits coming in August, I think we will continue the upward trend, but I sure hope our guys know that filling the shoes of Alex and Tanner isn't going to be easy."
