Rodehorst claims third in opening meet of spring

By Taylor Mueller, Sports Information Assistant

HASTINGS, Neb. – The long-awaited beautiful weather could not have been better for the Concordia men’s golf team as it traveled to Hastings, Neb., to compete in its opening meet of the spring season at the Hastings College Spring Invite. With little time and few opportunities to prepare, the Bulldogs fared well in their season opener.

Shooting a team-high score of 73 was sophomore Shawn Rodehorst who claimed a tie-breaking third place overall finish to lead the Bulldogs.

“He played well from start to finish,” coach Brett Muller said of Rodehurst. “He did a great job keeping it on the fairways.”

Freshman Sam Simonson finished four strokes behind Rodehurst to place second on the team. After a strong opening hole, Simonson continued his solid play the rest of the day.

While Muller was pleased with the performance of his two leading scorers, he noted that there is room to improve.

“We’re really looking for some consistency from our 3-4-5 spots,” Muller said. “There are definitely areas to improve upon, but it was good to get a competition in before the third GPAC qualifier on April 8. A lot of our guys will probably play over Easter break and be ready to go for that.”

Muller noted that the lack of cooperative weather has not done much to help the Bulldogs prepare for the spring season. Concordia typically practices at the Seward Country Club.

“We had probably played only about five rounds of actual practice rounds this spring, so expectations weren’t particularly high. It was good to see Shawn and Sam come out and perform well in the first meet of the spring. We’re about a month behind where we were last spring because of the cold weather.”

Concordia took two squads of five members each to the Hastings Meet. Playing well for the ‘Concordia B’ team was senior Nick Millberger who shot an 86. Millberger’s score was good enough to finish third for the team.

The Bulldogs will next travel to Lincoln, Neb., on April 8 to participate in the third GPAC qualifying meet.