Garden City, Kansas -- On the same course where they hope to have similar success next month, the Indian Hills golf team picked up its third team championship in as many outings this spring, dominating the 13-team field to win by 18 shots in the Southwest Kansas Shootout. The Warriors plan to return to the Buffalo Dunes Golf Course for the NJCAA National Championship May 16-19. And in this tourney, they bested some of the teams -- such as Dodge City, Iowa Western, Garden City and Hutchinson -- they will need to defeat to claim the school's 6th national title in a little over a month.
The Warriors didn't have the individual medalist -- that was Colorado Mesa's Grant Olinger -- but they did have the next three finishers in the individual title chase. Jackson Bugdalski was runnerup with a 216 total, three strokes behind Olinger, Ricky Sanders was 3rd with a 217, and Jakub Bares finished at 221, good for 4th place.
A three-shot lead for Indian Hills after the opening round grew to 12 after 36 holes and the final margin of 18 far outdistanced Dodge City, which was ranked 3rd behind top-rated Indian Hills and No. 2 Odessa in the latest Bushnell Golfweek NJCAA Division I Coaches Poll.
The team win goes with earlier victories in the TaylorMade-adidas Intercollegiate and Eagle Spring Classic. The Warriors will try to make it four-for-four when they take part in the Beu/Mussatto Invitational this Friday and Saturday.
Bugdalski opened this meet with a four-under par 68, the second-best round of the tourney, and followed with a 71 and a 77. He edged teammate Sanders by one shot. Sanders' best round was a two-under 70 in the second 18 holes. Bares had rounds of 74, 73 and 74.
Julien Sale gave IHCC another top-ten finisher -- he tied for 9th with a 224 total and topped everybody with his 39 pars.
Bugdalski played the par-3 holes in even par for the 54 holes, best in the field. Sanders and Bares tied with Cole Christian of Dodge City for the best cumulative score on the par-5s, each playing them at 5-under par.
Southwest Kansas Shootout
Team scores (top 10):
1. Indian Hills 290-288-298=876; 2. Dodge City 306-285-303=894; 3. Colorado Mesa 303-298-304=905; 4. Iowa Western 303-300-309=912; 5. Colorado State-Pueblo 311-296-307=914; 6. Colorado School of Mines 312-302-301=915; T7. Minnesota State-Mankato 311-296-310=917; T7. Colorado Christian 309-293-315=917; 9. Garden City 319-302-308=929; 10. Hutchinson 309-309-312=930
Indian Hills scores:
2. Jackson Bugdalski 68-71-77=216; 3. Ricky Sanders 72-70-75=217; 4. Jakub Bares 74-73-74=221; T9. Julien Sale 76-75-73=224; T16. Eric Gilpin 77-74-76=227; T32. Clayton Larsen 77-75-80=232