CHOUDRANT, La. – Three University of South Alabama men's golfers placed among the top 12 in the individual standings at the Jim Rivers Intercollegiate that concluded Tuesday, helping the Jaguars finish second in the team standings at their first event of the year.

Yannick Schütz carded a three-round 3-under-par 213 total to tie for fifth place individually, with Kyle Robinson tied for seventh one stroke behind him and Jordan Plunkett in a tie for 11th with a 215 54-hole score.  Their efforts helped South shoot par or better as a team in all three rounds of the event, highlighted by a 5-under-par 283 on the last day of play to end up with a 7-under-par 857 total.

UAB won the team title with a 21-under-par 843 group score, which was keyed by a 275 in the second round.  The Jags finished two strokes in front of Texas State and three ahead of tournament host Louisiana Tech, with ULM rounding out the top five.  The Blazers' Nick Robillard posted a 9-under-par 207 54-hole total, four shots better than Andoni Etchenique from ULM, to claim medalist honors.

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Event (host): Jim Rivers Intercollegiate (Louisiana Tech)
Dates: 9/13-15 (Sunday-Tuesday)
Course: Squire Creek Country Club (par 72, 7,070 yds)
Live scoring: http://results.golfstat.com//public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=20892
Final Results

TEAM SCORES
1) UAB 284-275-284—843 (-21); 2) South Alabama 286-288-283—857; 3) Texas State 282-285-292—859; 4) Louisiana Tech 288-295-277—860; 5) ULM 288-284-290—862; 6) Little Rock 283-292-291—866; 7) Lamar 296-287-289—872; 8) Abilene Christian 296-287-292—875; 9) Louisiana 303-292-289—884; 10) Western Kentucky 287-295-303—885; 11) Central Arkansas 305-299-291—895; 12) Houston Baptist 308-305-313—926.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
1) Nick Robillard, UAB 67-68-72—207 (-9); 2) Andoni Etchenique, ULM 69-74-68—211; T3) William Walker III, UAB 70-72-70—212; T3) Drew Mathers, UAB 74-65-73—212; T5) Yannick Schütz, USA 68-75-70—213; T5) Peter Hinant, ULL 73-71-69—213; T7) Kyle Robinson, USA 72-71-71—214; T7) Anton Albers, LR 69-70-75—214; T7) Brian Choe, ACU 71-73-70—214; T7) Fabian Sunden, TXST 70-72-72—214.

SOUTH ALABAMA SCORES
T5) Yannick Schütz 68-75-70—213 (-3); T7) Kyle Robinson 72-71-71—214; T11) Jordan Plunkett 74-72-69—215; T37) Eli Mitchell 74-70-79—223; T50) Dawson Atkinson 77-77-73—227; T61) Anders Emil Ejlersen 72-82-77—231.

TEE SHOTS
-The event field — which counted the top four scores of a six-man lineup — featured 73 individuals from 12 teams.
-It was the first time South competed at an event hosted by LA Tech at the Squire Creek Country Club since October 2009.
-The Jaguars and Blazers were the only two teams in the tournament to shoot par or better as a group in all three rounds.
-USA led the field in scoring on both par-three and par-five holes, finishing 33 under on the latter.
-The Jags' 59 birdies were also the most recorded in the field.
-Led by Mitchell's 13 birdies — one off the tourney lead — the Jaguars had four members of the lineup reach a double-digit total in the category after Schütz, Robinson and Plunkett carded 11 each.
-Schütz tied for the tournament lead with an 8-under-par score on the venue's par fives while posting the sixth top-10 performance of his career.
-After shooting par or below in one of five rounds a year ago Robinson accomplished the feat all three days of play as he was among the top five individually in scoring on par-four holes.
-Plunkett ranked among the top five in the field in par-five scoring — going 6 under on those holes — and was also among the top 10 on par threes to record his first top-20 result since last season's opening event.
-Mitchell, who was one of three players at the tournament to shoot below par on the course's par-three holes, fired a team-best six birdies as part of a 2-under-par 70 in the second round.
-After carding three birdies the first two rounds combined, Atkinson had three birdies on the final day of play to post his best score of the event.
-Ejlersen's even-par 72 over the opening 18 holes included a 2-under-par 34 on the back nine.

THEY SAID IT
Head coach Ben Hannan
On the importance of getting contributions throughout the event from the entire lineup: "This week was an entire team effort and a solid start to the season.  Getting contributions from everybody is certainly a positive sign because it takes pressure off of individuals so they can just focus on playing, which frees everyone up."
On the play of Kyle Robinson: "I'm very happy for Kyle this week, he was rock solid for us contributing all three rounds including shooting under par in the last two.  Following the wrist surgery last year he started to focus on certain aspects of his game and really improved in those areas.  Having him back and the strong showing this week is exciting because it shows how far he's come and what lies ahead."
On what the team needs to work on to prepare for the next tournament: "The strength of this team is depth and leadership.  We have individuals who can contribute through all nine spots, and this week showed that.  There are a few things we need to clean up, but for the first event in roughly five-and-a-half months I was very pleased to see us shoot three rounds at par or better as a group on a championship golf course.  We will qualify this coming week and look for competitive play from the group, and make selections based on the golf course and individual play from qualifying."

Up next: South will return to the course for the Graeme McDowell Invitational, which will be hosted by UAB in Birmingham Sept. 29-30.

Photo provided by bradpuckettphotography.com

For more information about South Alabama athletics, check back with www.usajaguars.com, and follow the Jaguars at www.twitter.com/WeAreSouth_JAGS. Season tickets for all Jaguar athletic events can be purchased by calling (251) 461-1USA (1872).

Join the Birdie Club — the men's golf specific support club of the Jaguar Athletic Fund. All donations to the Birdie Club go directly to support the South Alabama men's golf program. For more information on how you can join visit:  jaguarathleticfund.com/birdieclub.

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