This week's Missouri Valley Conference golfers of the week include Dain Richie of Southern Illinois, Illinois State's Jinyoung Yun, and Missouri State's Kayla Pfitzner.
Dain Richie and Andrew Thornton posted top-11 individual finishes to help lead Southern Illinois to a fourth-place finish in the White Sands Bahamas NCAA Invitational at the Ocean Club Golf Course on Paradise Island, Bahamas. SIU never fell lower than tied for fifth in the tournament as a team. According to records on hand, the 839 team score for a 54-hole tournament is the 4th lowest in program history. The last time the Salukis recorded a score of 839 as a team was in 2006 at the Buffalo Rock/Southern Showdown. Richie posts back-to-back second and third-round scores of 68 to finish in the top 10 of the individual leaderboard as he tied for ninth overall with a 206. Richie's second round was highlighted with the first eagle of the weekend for SIU on 602 par 5 on the second hole. His final round was spearheaded with seven birdies.
Missouri State's men's golf team wrapped its fall schedule on Tuesday in the final round of The Clerico in Broken Arrow, Okla.. The Bears finished 10th in the highly-competitive field with a final showing of 285-304-293--882. Little Rock (275-285-292--852) took the team title by one stroke over Michigan (853) with UTEP (858), UTSA (859) and host Oral Roberts (864) rounding out the top five. The Bears were once again led by Hampus Wijkstrom (67-74-72--213) who tied for seventh place.
The Drake men's golf finished in 10th place as a team (299-299-300-898) at the ODU/OBX Intercollegiate in Powells Point, N.C. Emil Riegger (73-73-73-219) was steady all three rounds to finish in a tie for 17th place.
Sophomore Jack Schoenberger (Milton, Ga.) led the Belmont Bruins to a fourth-place team finish at the Pinetree Intercollegiate in Kennesaw, Ga. It marked Belmont's fourth top-5 finish of the fall season. Schoenberger tied for sixth of 58 competitors with a three-round 69-75-72=216. The event, which also featured MVC member Bradley, was contested at the Pinetree Country Club (Par 72, 7074 yards). Schoenberger has had four top-10 finishes this fall, and he leads Belmont in scoring with a 69.5 average. Bradley finished ninth in the event, and the Braves were led by Carter Stevenson (77-69-77) -- he tied for 20th.
Sophomore Daniil Romashkim carded a 4-over 76 as the University of Evansville men's golf team completed its fall season at the Lehigh University Invitational at Saucon Valley Country Club. Following an even 72 in Friday's opening round, Romashkin finished the tournament with a 148 to take 11th.
Illinois State's Jinyoung Yun (Gr., Wynn Vale, South Australia) had rounds of 73 (+1), 67 (-5), and 70 (-2) at the Clash at Boulder Creek, tying for fifth place overall in the strong field of 104 golfers. Her 67 tied her own school record for lowest single-round in program history, while her 210 tournament score was the second-lowest tournament score in program history – second to her own 204 from the opening tournament of the fall season. In 12 tournament rounds during the fall, she had eight rounds at or under par and is averaging 70.8 strokes per round with three top-10 finishes in four tournaments.
Missouri State snapped a school record with a 54-hole score of 865 to finish tied for sixth at the Diamante Intercollegiate. The Bears wrapped the event with a final-round 290 to finish one-over par at 293-282-290--865. The impressive showing moved MoState into a share of sixth place with Ball State on the event's final day. Cal Baptist (838) took the team title, ahead of Boston College (841), Central Arkansas (850), Little Rock (863), and Arkansas State (864) to round out the top five. Missouri State's 865 total shattered the club's previous record of 871, set at the Jackrabbit Invitational in 2022. Highlighting Missouri State's historic run was Kayla Pfitzner whose three-under finish (74-66-73--213) placed her in a tie for 14th place as MSU's top finisher. The senior's second-round 66 was the second-best round in school history, just a stroke off the record 65. Janie Samattiyadeekul led the Salukis and finished tied for 46th with a score of 220 (+4). Jillian Cosler led Bradley with a three-round 217 as she tied for 30th on the individual leaderboard.
Molly Lee (Sr., Kaohsiung, Taiwan) of Indiana State finished tied for second overall and led the way as Indiana State captured the team title at the Braun Intercollegiate this week in Evansville, Ind. The Sycamore senior led ISU to its first team win since the 2016-17 season when ISU topped the field at the ISU Spring Invitational. Lee was tied for the overall lead through the first day on the course on Monday. Starting on the back nine, she birdied the 13th, first, and fifth holes to highlight her opening-round 74 (+2). She followed up tying for the low-round of the day for ISU on Tuesday with a final-round 76 (+4) to finish +6 for the tournament and finishing one stroke off the individual lead. Lee and the Sycamores went into a playoff with Northern Iowa for the team title with the Sycamores winning by two strokes on the opening hole at the Oak Meadow Country Club. Victoria Hualde led the Panthers with a fourth-place finish and score of 151 (+7) following a 75 (+3) in Monday's opening round. Evansville was led by Kate Petrova. After sitting in a tie for the lead following the first round, Petrova carded a 78 on Tuesday to earn a tie for 5th place with a 152.
Murray State's Payton Carter carded a 1-under-par 71 in the final round of the 26th annual Rainbow Wahine Invitational in Honolulu, Hawaii at Kapolei Golf Club. Her final round allowed for a jump from 53rd place to 37th place to help the Racers to their best round of the event. MSU finished with a score line of 76-77-71=224.