Posted: Oct 12, 2021
SPENCER - The Iowa Central men's golf team opened the two-day Northwest Iowa Collegiate Showcase with a strong round here Monday.
The Tritons fired a team score of nine-over to sit in second behind only Iowa Western. Hawkeye is third followed by Jamestown, Briar Cliff and Dordt in the 13-team field.
Justin Schipper carded a 74-68 to lead Iowa Central and is tied for third overall at 2-under par. Liam Ross is tied for seventh at 1-over after rounds of 72-73, while Austin Erickson is tied for 14th at 4-over after rounds of 74-74.
"So happy for Justin to be able to play so well," Iowa Central head coach Kris Graewin said. "It's a golf course that he is familiar with and it's great to see him play so well again. We struggled a bit early in round one before we found our footing for the rest of the afternoon. Iowa Western is a great team and it's fun to challenge ourselves with this type of competition.
"Liam was back in the lineup and was able to put together two solid scores. There's still another level that he can get to and that's just going to come with more experience from playing the courses over here in the United States."
Tomas Ribeiro shot 76-74 and Simon Mitchell 85-83 for the Tritons.
"Obviously we dug ourselves a bit of a hole to dig out of tomorrow but I'm just hoping for a solid round and prepare us for what our regional will be like," Graewin said. "This should be a good tournament to send us into our offseason."
Round three play is set for Tuesday.
-By Dana Becker