Teller Turns in Team Low at Newman Fall Invitational

Wichita, Kan.—In their third outing of the fall semester, the Panhandle State men’s golf team traveled to Wichita, Kan. to compete in the Newman Fall Invitational at the Crestview Country Club Oct. 1-2. Senior Sergi Teller led the Aggie men with team lows in each round to finish T30 overall.

Teller carded an 82 in round one, matching teammate Karsten Harrison for the lowest team total on Monday. The senior from Barcelona, Spain shaved three strokes off for a 79 in round two and dropped to a 78 in round three. Harrison posted a 38th place individual finish with final round scores of 83 and 85. Lucas Heathington improved by nine strokes after taking a 93 in round one; the senior marked scores of 84 in each of the final two rounds to place 41st. Ethan Derrick competed in his first event as an Aggie and saw vast improvement between rounds with scores of 109, 101, 94. As a team the Aggies listed seventh among the seven teams competing with combined team scores of 366, 347 and 341.

The men from Southeastern Oklahoma State led the leaderboard, taking both the team and individual titles for the tournament. Zach James turned in a ten under for the event with tournament low scores of 68, 68 and 69. SEOSU took team scores of 286, 294 and 287.

Head Coach Dewayne Mauldin offered insight into this week’s performance by the Aggie men, “The guys played pretty decent this week. The team improved 19 strokes in the 2nd round and 25 strokes in 3rd round. After each round I saw the confidence grow in each one of them.” Mauldin added specific comments on the players stating, “Sergi [Teller] was consistent through all three rounds, and Karsten [Harrison] was really striking the ball well, but just couldn’t get the putter going.” He continued, “Lucas [Heathington] started out slow in the first round but played better and better over the next two; and Ethan [Derrick] also improved after each round, and gained good experience for his first tournament. I was very proud of him in not giving up mentally.” Coach Mauldin concluded, “We hope to carry the momentum over to Winfield.”

Panhandle State golfers compete in their final tournament of the fall season next week at the Moundbuilder Fall Classic hosted by Southwestern College in Winfield, Kan. Both the men and women’s teams will take to the links Oct. 8-9 for this fall season finale.