Oct. 6, 2009
Final Results
RUSTON - Sophomore Joel Thelen shot his third straight one-under-par 71 Tuesday in the final round of the 2009 Squire Creek Invitational hosted by Louisiana Tech and finished tied for fifth out of 84 competitors at the event.
Thelen, who was playing for the Bulldogs Blue Team, was one of three Bulldogs to medal at the event as teammates Cody Santone (T9th, 70-73-73=216) and Patrick Blunt (T16th, 78-68-72=218) also finished in the top 20. It was Santone's third straight Top 10 finish in as many tournaments this fall.
"Cody continues to improve and his resume is really impressive as a sophomore," said Tech head coach Jeff Parks. "Joel finished well and played consistently with three straight 71s. Sam (Forgan) and Patrick both had scores in the 60s which should help their confidence. We showed we have some depth on our team."
Southeastern Louisiana's Cedric Scotto won the individual honors with a three-round total of six-under-par 210 (68-70-72) while UNO's Ken Looper (69-70-72=211) and Sebastian Szirmak (72-68-71=211) each finished one stroke back.
New Orleans won the team competition, easily outdistancing the other 15 teams. The Privateers shot a three-round team total of 10-under 854, beating runnerup Southeastern Louisiana by nine strokes.
Parks Bulldogs "A" team finished tied for sixth place at the tournament with a team total of 18-over-par 882 led by Santone, Matthew Harvey (T31st, 221), Clinton Shepard (T36th, 222), Jonathan Bale (T47th, 226) and Cody Blankenship (74th, 233).
Thelen and Blunt led the Bulldogs Blue team to an 11th place finish as they were joined by Sam Forgan (T44th, 225), Hayden Stephens (T68th, 231) and Timothy Byrd (82nd, 241).
"I know we can play better, and we will continue to improve," Parks said. "I wanted to win this week so I'm not real excited about our finish even though I know it was better than last year. We have a lot of potential, and we just have to be patient. It will come together.
"We have two more tournaments this fall with two of the toughest fields. I know we can play better than we currently are, and we will need to play up to our potential at those two events."
In all the Bulldogs saw five of their 10 competitors post at least one round in the red led by career bests from Forgan (65) and Blunt (68) in Monday's second round.
