Men’s golf finished for 10th place at the D.A. Weibring Intercollegiate in Normal, Ill.

The Huskies are coming off an 11th place finish at the Wolf Run Intercollegiate last week and were looking to finish better at Normal.

At the end of day one, the Huskies were tied for ninth (614), while U of I (578) led the way with an 18-shot lead over second place Central Arkansas (596).

Red shirt senior Griffin Bauman led the way for the Huskies, shooting an opening round of 73, followed by a 77 to finish with a 150. This put him in tie for 13th in individual play.

“I played pretty solid over the weekend especially in round one and three,” said Bauman. “Round one was my best round by far. I really like this course; I have played the course a couple of time. I really like the greens, I feel confident on them.”

Coach Tom Porten said the weather was a factor in the Huskies performance, but the Huskies also were not capitalizing on their opportunities.

“Every year there is a lot of wind down in Normal on the first day,” Porten said. “Saturday, with the conditions the way they are, its not about making birdies. It is about making pars and staying in contention. We didn’t take advantage of the scoring opportunities when we had our scoring clubs in our hands.”

Nick Schiavi, Kurtis Luedtke and Paul Hammerschmidt followed up their first round with a better performance later in the afternoon. Schiavi posted a 76 in the afternoon following a 79 during his morning round. He was in a tie for 38th along with Luedtke. Luedtke responded from a morning 81 to card a 74 during his afternoon round.

Illinois would go on to hold on to first place at the D.A. Weibring Intercollegiate by 21 shots (870) over Central Arkansas (891). The Huskies would finish tied with Southern Illinois University Edwardsville with a total score of 917.

Schiavi posted the Huskies’s best round score for the tournament, which was a 71 on Sunday. He would go on to finish four strokes behind Bauman and would finish tied for 28th.

Bauman would lead the Huskies overall in the tournament with a total score of 222, tying for 12th place overall. Bauman’s final round on Sunday included 13 pars, three bogies and a pair of birdies.

“I am really pleased with the play of Griffin as of late,” Porten said. “He is having a good start to his senior year. He has done a really good job of becoming a complete player. When he first got here he was relying more on his scrambling. He didn’t hit a lot of fairways and greens back then. Bauman has improved on his overall hitting, he is hitting the ball a lot farther now which is a big part to our strength and conditioning at NIU.”