April 1, 2012

LSU Invitational Results

BATON ROUGE, La. - Louisiana Tech senior Jonathan Bale shot a final round 71 to lead the Bulldogs to a fifth place finish at the 12-team LSU National Invitational Sunday at the University Club.

Bale was Tech's top finisher at the event, tying for 17th overall with a three-round total of 221 which also including an opening round par 72.

As a team, Tech defeated 27th ranked UT-Chattanooga, 60th ranked UL-Lafayette and two other top 100 ranked programs while falling only to 24th ranked LSU, 34th ranked Iowa, 53rd ranked Purdue and 61st ranked Iowa State.

"We had some goals for the event that we didn't accomplish," said Tech head coach Jeff Parks. "However, we did beat some very good teams. We still haven't put three solid rounds together at one event and that's our ultimate goal every event.

"We have one more tournament (at Memphis) next weekend and then we will have two weeks until we compete in the WAC Championships. Our team goal remains qualifying for the NCAA regionals. We definitely didn't hurt ourselves this weekend. We just have to keep working hard."

The Bulldogs shot a three-round team total of 887 to finish fifth, behind LSU (853), Iowa (855), Purdue (877) and Iowa State (882). Tech defeated UL-Lafayette (890), Minnesota (891), UT-Chattanooga (894), UNC-Wilmington (901), Furman (907), Michigan (907) and Boston College (942).

In addition to Bale's showing at the event, Tech was led by Travis Wilmore (76-73-74=223, T21st), Cody Blankenship (72-78-75=225, T29th), Sam Forgan (78-70-78=226, T35th) and Cody Santone (72-80-76=228, T42nd). Jack Lempke (77-79-78=234, 54th) also competed as an individual at the event.

LSU's Austin Gutgsell won the individual competition at the tournament, shooting a three-round total of nine-under-par 207, which including a final round 65.

The Bulldogs return to action next weekend at the Memphis Intercollegiate.