After winning all or part of the Drury Invitational team title the last three years, the Washburn golf team had to settle for a third place finish last week at the Rivercut Golf Course in Springfield, Mo.

The first day of the tournament saw the Ichabod golfers shoot a 1-over-par 289, leaving them one back of the lead. But after an 8-over-par 296 second round, the team dropped to third, six strokes behind the champions from Central Missouri and one behind the host team, Drury.

“We were pretty disappointed in our performance at Drury,” said junior Matt Ewald. “We go into every tournament to win, and to get beat by a couple of teams that we should beat, it is frustrating and disappointing.”

Two of the team’s top four finishers, Sam Wempe and Dustin Yeager, were individuals in the tournament. This meant that their scores were not included in the total team score. Wempe led the Ichabod squad, tying for fourth with an even-par 144, and Dustin Yeager placed 14th with a 3-over-par 147. John Robbins tied for sixth with a 1-over-par 145 while Matt Salome tied for eighth with a 2-over-par 146. Also placing for the Washburn golfers, Matt Ewald and Matt Lazzo both tied for 15th with a 4-over-par 148. Hitting a 10-over-par 154, Ryan Deutsch tied for 38th.

“A positive take is to look at this tournament as a reality check that we have to go out and win,” said Ewald. “We just can’t expect the other teams to hand it to us.”

The Washburn golf team finishes up the fall season today and tomorrow with the Fort Hays State Invitational. It is the second MIAA event of the year and an opportunity for the team to continue its streak of consecutive MIAA points event wins. The win streak, dating back to last year, is at six, with one coming earlier this year at the Truman State Invitational.

“Next week is a conference tournament, and we must have our ‘A’ game in order to win,” said Ewald. “Our goal is to sweep the conference tournaments again this year, and if we don’t win next week, we can’t do that.”