Spiders Climb to Fourth on Final Day at Cutter Creek

Friday, March 31

Snow Hill, NC

9:00 AM

University of Richmond

Cutter Creek Intercollegiate

04/02/2023 | Men's Golf

Results

SNOW HILL, N.C. — The Richmond Spiders Men's Golf team fired a 4-under round of 284 Sunday to finish the Cutter Creek Intercollegiate in fourth place out of 10 teams. Four Spiders carded rounds of even par or better in the final round as Richmond jumped from sixth to fourth on the team leaderboard. Cole Ekert shot 3-under (69), Michael Childress shot 1-under (71), and Ben Cooper and Patrick Isztwan shot even par (72).

Ekert finished sixth on the individual leaderboard at 218 (+2), his third top-10 result in four tournaments this spring. Ekert recorded 14 birdies over the 54 holes of the event, one shy of the most of any golfer in the field.

Cooper tied for 12th in the field at 221 (+5), securing his best result since tying for 10th at the season-opening VCU Shootout in September.

Isztwan tied for 25th in his season debut. He birdied his final two holes Sunday to secure the best tournament result of his Spiders career.

"I did not know if I was going to count [for Richmond's team score]," said Isztwan of the end of his round. "But I had a frustrating couple of holes leading up the end so I just tried to settle down and finish strong."

Isztwan hit a 6-iron on the 229-yard 17th hole to 25 feet and made the putt. Moments later, he reached the 575-yard par 5 18th in two shots and two-putted for a closing birdie.

"I felt like I played solid and I just had a lot of fun being involved again," said Isztwan, who last competed for the Spiders at the Forest Creek Collegiate in March 2022.

He placed one shot in front of teammate Michael Childress, who tied for 27th at 225 (+9). Drew Carlin tied for 43rd at 229 (+13), while Garrett Clark tied for 68th at 239 (+23).

All eight golfers on the Spiders roster participated in the event, with Lou Baker and Alex Campbell competing as individuals. Baker tied for 21st in field at 223 (+7), his best result in four events this spring. Campbell placed 75th at 252 (+36).

Richmond captured its fourth top-five team finish in a tournament this season and first since a tie for third at February's Wexford Intercollegiate. The Spiders had finished 12th and 14th in their last two events entering this week.

"Getting the guys to gel and put up solid team numbers is getting more important as we head into the last part of the semester," said coach Adam Decker.

Richmond has two events left on its 2022-23 schedule: the RedHawk Intercollegiate in Pittsburgh, Pa. on April 17-18 and the Atlantic 10 Championship in Orlando, Fla. on April 28-30.