IU finishes 9th, freshmen shine in Ariz. tourney

Andrew Havill had his best performance of his collegiate career at the Snowman Getaway in Goodyear, Ariz., Tuesday.

The freshman tied for seventh as an individual with a three-round score of 208 (-8).
The Hoosiers finished ninth at the tournament.

IU’s other freshmen, Will Seger and Keegan Vea, contributed the team’s second and third-best scores.

Seger shot a 213 (-3), including a first round score of 68 (-4), and Vea finished the tournament just one stroke behind Seger at 214 (-2).

“I can’t remember a better tournament for our freshmen class,” IU Coach Mike Mayer said. “The freshmen led the way, and I think we’re going to continue to see
improvement.”

The Hoosiers were tied for eighth place after the first two rounds on day one of the tournament, but dropped into ninth after Tuesday’s final round.

Mayer said senior David Mills played his worst tournament in a long time.

Mills, a consistent score leader for the Hoosiers, finished in a tie for 55th with a score of 221 (+5).

“For whatever reason, he just wasn’t comfortable with his game for this tournament,” Mayer said. “It was not a normal tournament for David.”

Despite not reaching the team’s goal of winning the tournament, he said his team will focus on the positives going forward. One of IU’s biggest positives was having three freshmen record the team’s lowest scores.

Havill said the freshmen have been pushing each other since before they arrived on campus.

“We all came in as friends and knew we all could play,” he said. “We’re not all playing to our full potential, but we’re getting close.”

Seger said the team struggled.

“Even though I was the lowest on the team, I still wasn’t really excited about my performance,” he said. “We got ninth out of 17 teams, so that’s not what we were looking for.”

Sophomore Max Kollin and junior Nicholas Grubnich rounded out the top five for the Hoosiers. Kollin finished with a 221 (+5) and Grubnich shot a 226 (+10).

The other IU individuals competing were junior Andrew Fogg and senior Hugo Menendez, who finished with a 219 (+3), and 220 (+4), respectively.

IU’s next competition is the Talis Park Challenge March 16-17 in Naples, Fla. The 18-day layoff is the second longest of the spring season for the Hoosiers.

Mayer said the team has several things to focus on during that stretch.

“Trying to get the weather better is what we’re going to focus on,” Mayer said. “Other than that, we’re going to focus on mental strength and training. Another thing is we’re really going to stress simple fundamentals.”

@MichaelHughes94