MOUNTAIN HOME, Ark. -  Competing in the American Midwest Conference Championship Tournament the Missouri Baptist Men's Golf team sent a surge through the standings by beating every other teams by at least nine strokes in the second round of play yesterday afternoon. However they were unable to carry all of the momentum into today's third round, but still beat four other AMC foes to finish the tournament in second place.

The tournament is played over 54 holes across two days, with all teams playing two rounds on Day One, and a single round on Day Two.

The Spartans were in contention if not in the race for the top spot in the first round yesterday. On the Par-72 course at Big Creek Golf Club in Mountain Home, Ark. they carded a first round combined score of 301. That left them in third place but among a group of four teams including William Woods University, Central Baptist College, and Williams Baptist University who were all bunched within eight shots of each other for second place. Columbia College paced everyone with a first round score of 289.

The second round is where the Spartans started to separate themselves and even made a run at the top spot. In the afternoon on Monday they Spartans improved by 14 strokes over their morning score, coming in with a 287. That mark allowed them to pick up nine shots against Columbia, and 12 each from CBC and WWU. After the first day, MBU was just three shots off the lead set by CC.

MBU was unable to match that achievement in Round 3 on Tuesday. Their combined 293 was fourth out of the six teams competing. They gave back the 12 strokes they picked up on CBC in the second round but hung on to claim runner-up status at the tournament. Columbia College led after all three rounds and finished eight strokes better than the Spartans, 873 to 881.

Individually MBU had some stand-out performances.

Sophomore Jannik Daeschner was consistent throughout the tournament in carding scores of 71-73-72 to finish at even par in a tie for fourth overall.

Senior Jack Moran was the talk of the first day. He went out in round one with a somewhat disappointing 77 (+5) but turned around in the afternoon round to fire a six-under 66. That would prove to be the second lowest round of any golfer in the field for any round of the tournament. Unfortunately he had trouble matching that vibe on Tuesday as he fired a 75 to finish at +2 (218) in seventh place.

Senior Alexander Engelhardt improved his score in each successive round. He went out Monday and shot a 78 (+6) in Round One, a 74 in Round Two, and finally a -1 (71) on Tuesday in the final round. His 223 (+7) was good enough for twelfth place.

Also consistent throughout was freshman Josemaria Gutierrez. He turned in scores of 75-74-75 to finish at +8. He might have had an opportunity to break par and have a top five finish but struggled mightily on his final hole to end up tied for thirteenth place.

The final golfer for MBU was Drew Wielgus who never seemed to find his groove over the three rounds, finishing in twenty-first place among 30 golfers with scores of 78-75-75 (228).

The American Midwest Conference also announced their All-Conference and Season Award Winners on Tuesday. While MBU was shutout of all the individual performance honors, they were recognized for academic achievement.

Senior Jack Moran was nominated to the NAIA Champions of Character Team.

The following Spartans were named as AMC Academic All-Conference selections: Alexander Engelhardt, Drew Wielgus, Ethan Hanaman, Gabriel Fredericks, Jack Moran, Jannik Daeschner, Josemaria Gutierrez, Luke Gardner, and Ryan Bozada.
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