Men’s golf finish up fall season

The Raider men’s golf team came home with a second place finish after the two-day Dakota Wesleyan Invite in Mitchell, S.D. on Sept 30 and Oct. 1
Northwestern held the lead after the first day, due to the putting skill of the squad.
“The course we played the first day had nice greens that ran really true,” said freshman Jay Monahan, “so I feel like that gave us the biggest advantage.”
Northwestern shot a 36-hole score of 604, which was five strokes behind the winner, Morningside. Freshman Jay Monahan was the highest Raider on the leaderboard, finishing third with a 149.
Sophomore Ryan Kiewiet rebounded from a rough first day to finish four strokes behind Monahan, and tied for 13th place. Junior Michael Clark carded a 154, good enough for 16th.
Sophomores Kyle Stanek and Neil Malenke rounded out the scorecard, shooting 155 and 156, respectively.
Everyone on the team except Kiewiet saw their second day score rise.
“Although wind was definitely a factor, I think the biggest cause of the higher scores was the overall outlook everyone had on the course we had to play,” Monahan said. “We knew it wouldn’t be the nicest course we’d play all year, and I think that gave us a negative attitude going in. If we can disregard our feelings about the course, I know we can shoot better scores there in the spring.”
Some members of the JV squad also made noise atop the leaderboard. Junior Michael Dykema was tied for the lead after Friday, but dropped down to a tie for 11th after Saturday.
Sophomore Joe Clark also had a solid tournament, tying for 13th place with a 153.
Monahan, Malenke and Kiewiet have all held the top spot for the Raiders so far in the season.
The Raiders finished their fall season Thursday at the second GPAC qualifier in Hastings, Neb. Results were unavailable at the time of print. The squad shot a 289 on the same course on Sept. 22.
Malenke was the overall leader going into the second round after he shot a 4-under 68.
NW is currently averaging 295.7 on the year.