WEST DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake men's golf team completed play at the MVC Championship on Tuesday afternoon and finished the tournament in fourth place. The Bulldogs tallied a 54-hole score of 873 (292-294-287) over two days of competition at Des Moines Golf and Country Club.
"I was very proud of the effort this week," Drake head coach
Matt Lewis said. "We hit the ball really well all three rounds. We just couldn't get the putts to fall. The guys did a great job with their game plans and doing everything we worked on for this week. Putting just killed us especially in the first two rounds.
"Yesterday we played pretty well the first 27 holes and we were in a good position. We really struggled on our final nine holes and gave away too many shots mostly on the greens. If we could have done a better job with that we would have been within striking distance of the lead going into today."
Drake was led by the duo of
Jack Dumas and
Nikko Ganas on the leaderboard with the pair each earning a top-10 result.
Dumas was the highest finisher for the Bulldogs tying for eighth place at 1-under, 215. The senior had a consistent showing firing rounds of 72-71-72 and led the field in scoring average on par 5's at 7-under, 4.42.
Ganas ended in a tie for 10th, one shot behind Dumas at even par, 216. Ganas started his tournament carding a 3-under, 69, but found some trouble in his second round with a 4-over, 76. He ultimately bounced back in his final round with a 1-under, 71 to jump three spots and back into the top-10 individually.
Sophomore
Jake Weissenburger was next in line and tied for 17th with a total score of 220 (72-75-73). The local product from Clive, Iowa, led the field with 40 pars in the tournament and tallied the fourth-best scoring average on par 3's at 2.92. He also named to the All-Conference Team during the awards ceremony.
Completing the Bulldog lineup was
Sam Johnson and
Nate Spear. Johnson tied for 33rd at 226 (79-76-71) making improvements each round, while Spear tied for 40th at 228 (80-72-76).
The Illinois State Redbirds (856) took home the team title besting runner-up Murray State by three shots in a back-and-forth final round. Top individual medalist honors went to Murray State's freshman Trey Wall at 206.
"I thought we got off to a great start in the final round," Lewis said. "We made a few birdies and had some momentum. We had a small rough stretch mid round, but got it back together and finished well.
"Overall, I am extremely proud of the guys this week and for the entire spring. We probably had the best spring season of our last three to four years."
This concludes the 2024-25 season for the Drake men's golf team.
