MU Golfers Drop To Sixth At Pacific Invite

Nov. 6, 2007

STOCKTON, Calif. - Junior Mike Van Sickle is tied for fourth place at The Stockton Sports Commission Pacific Invitational, but Marquette University's golf team dropped four spots Tuesday to sixth place overall following second round action at Brookside Country Club.

The Golden Eagles added 11 strokes to their first round score, tallying a 286 on day two, despite Van Sickle's five-under par, 67, which was the third-best individual score.

"We got off to a decent start today, but then had a real tough stretch between holes four through nine," said head coach Tim Grogan, whose MU squad was 17-under for the tournament at one point Tuesday before finishing at 13-under, 561.

Van Sickle's seven birdies and an eagle on the par-5 hole 16 helped salvage MU's round. Kelly Kretz, who was tied for third place following the first round, is currently tied for 12th place. Kretz carded a 71 after starting with three bogeys in the first four holes, but the freshman rebounded by shooting two-under on the back nine.

"Van Sickle played well in the first round [Monday], but he didn't finish his round off," said Grogan. "Today was the opposite. Van Sickle and Kretz probably saved our round today. Kretz didn't give up out there. You could just tell by watching him that he stayed patient."

Mike Bielawski improved by five stokes with a 72 followed by Ted Gray and Dustin Schwab who finished at 76 and 78, respectively.

At 29-under, Kansas State (547) remains atop the team leader board five strokes ahead Charlotte (553), the nation's second-ranked team. Also moving ahead of the Golden Eagles were UC Davis (556), Oregon (558), and Fresno State (560). With the Pacific Invitational being the last tournament MU plays in this fall, Grogan feels his team is motivated heading into final round on Wednesday, Nov. 7.

"We're looking forward to putting good closure on our fall season," said Grogan. "Tomorrow goes a long way to tell us what we're capable of and how well we stack up."

1 Kansas State -29 273 274 547
2 Charlotte -23 278 275 553
3 UC Davis -20 278 278 556
4 Oregon -18 279 279 558
5 Fresno State -16 280 280 560
6 Marquette University -15 275 286 561
7 San Jose State -14 279 283 562
8 UC Santa Barbara -12 285 279 564
9 Pacific -9 287 280 567
T10 Brigham Young -8 282 286 568
T10 Ohio State -8 282 286 568
12 CSU-Northridge -2 284 290 574
13 Northern Colorado +4 289 291 580
14 Rice University +6 285 297 582