Laconia, Ind. - After putting up a fight against Taylor through the opening two rounds of the Crossroads League Championship on Monday, the Marian men's golf team delivered the final blow against the sixth-ranked Trojans on Tuesday, over-coming an 11-stroke deficit to win the Crossroads League title for the first time since 2015. Marian's win snaps an eight-year drought and records the program's 15th CL title, the most by any program in Marian history. In Marian's championship run,
Brandon Heffner shined brightest, moving back into the lead on Tuesday to win the individual medalist honor.
DAY 1 RECAP
The Knights entered day two trailing Taylor by one stroke, and despite a pair of high numbers on Marian first few holes of the day, were able to keep the pace of Taylor. Midway through the final round of the tournament, Taylor began to pull away from Marian, at one point opening an 11-shot lead against the Knights. Marian was able to get back into range as they began knocking down birdies and pars, taking advantage of multiple bogeys fired by the Trojans.
After the turn, Marian got back into the game and began to overtake Taylor, pushing in front by as many as nine strokes with four holes remaining for each golfer. Marian continued to hold their lead, and despite some late bogeys from the Marian men, the Knights were able to pull off the upset, clinching an automatic bid into the NAIA National Championship as they won the Crossroads League Championship by two strokes.
On the final day Marian finished with a team score of 309, edging out Taylor by three as they came in with a 312 score. Marian's final score for the three rounds finished at 908 (299+300+309), two better than Taylor's (298+300+312) score of 910. St. Francis finished the day in third as they gained two spots on the team leaderboard, passing over fourth place Indiana Wesleyan and fifth place Spring Arbor. Bethel finished sixth, followed by Huntington, Grace, and Mt. Vernon Nazarene.
Individually,
Brandon Heffner played near flawless in his final round, shooting a 71 on Tuesday for his second round under-par in the tournament. The -1 performance from Heffner helped him overtake Noah Ross for the individual lead, as Ross shot a 77 on the final day, allowing Heffner to hit a walk-in par for the win by four strokes on the 18th hole. Heffner's winning performance prevailed him to the individual medalist title, giving Marian their 11th honor in program history, with the Knights repeating following
Jay Williams championship last season. Heffner is the eighth different Knight to win the individual medalist honor, and the youngest to win since Trey Pfund's first title in 2010. The final score for the sophomore finished with a 219 (70+78+71).
Weston Ogden joined Heffner on the All-Tournament Team, finishing fifth overall. Ogden shot a 78 in his final round to finish with a three-round score of 228.
Luke Beetz got off to a rough start with a quintuple bogey on the opening hole, but rebounded strong to finish with a 76 in the third round of the tournament, ending the 54-hole event with a total score of 229. Beetz finished sixth in the league championship, gaining four spots on the final day.
Sam Slaughter finished 13th overall, carding an 85 in the final round after a string of late bogeys knocked the sophomore out of the top-five. Slaughter finished with a final score of 234.
Patrick Guymon cracked the top-20 in his final appearance in the Crossroads League Championships as he tied for 19th, firing an 84 in the last round to end with a two-day score of 239.
With Marian's win, the clinched an automatic berth to the NAIA National Championships, held May 15-18 in Mesa, Arizona. More information about the NAIA National Championships will be released at a later date.
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