GADSDEN, Ala. – Both Kevin Dahlberg and Jacob LeCroy shot at or below par over three rounds at the Graeme McDowell Invitational hosted by UAB at the Silver Lakes Backbreaker/Heartbreaker Golf Course on Monday and Tuesday, helping the University of South Alabama men's golf program to a top-five result in the final team standings.

The former — making his collegiate debut — finished in a tie for 12th place individually with a 1-under-par 215 54-hole score following rounds of 71, 72 and 72, with the latter ending up tied for 17th one stroke behind.  Jordan Plunkett was among the top 20 in the individual standings as well with a 217 two-day total, while the trio of Jack Hearn, Will Skipp and Eli Mitchell each contributed a round at or under par toward the Jaguars' 866 team total.

The host Blazers recorded a 27-under-par 837 score to win the event by a 23-stroke margin over Florida Gulf Coast, with Texas State (863), ULM (865) and South rounding out the top five.  Khavish Varadan and Nick Robillard — both from UAB — posted three-round totals of 12-under-par 204 and 205, respectively, to take the top two spots in the individual standings.

TOURNAMENT INFORMATION
Event (host): Graeme McDowell Invitational (UAB)
Dates: 9/27-28 (Monday-Tuesday)
Course: Silver Lakes Backbreaker/Heartbreaker Golf Course (par 72, 7,467 yds)
Live scoring: http://results.golfstat.com/public/leaderboards/gsnav.cfm?pg=participants&tid=23343&x=0.509607805749
Final results

TEAM SCORES
1) UAB 281-277-279—837 (-27); 2) Florida Gulf Coast 294-285-281—860; 3) Texas State 283-287-293—863; 4) ULM 293-284-288—865; 5) South Alabama 290-288-288—866; 6) Jacksonville State 293-288-291—872; 7) Troy 293-286-295—874; 8) Lipscomb 288-286-301—875; 9) Louisiana 294-297-285—876; 10) Charleston Southern 286-300-294—880; 11) Western Kentucky 296-284-303—883; 12) North Alabama 288-297-300—885; 13) Samford 298-295-295—888; 14) UAB "B" 294-297-305—896; 15) Georgia State 300-306-300—906; 16) Winthrop 306-300-312—918.

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
1) Khavish Varadan, UAB 69-69-66—204 (-12); 2) Nick Robillard, UAB 67-70-68—205; 3) Fabian Sunden, TXST 67-77-67—211; T4) Jackson Singletary, JSU 71-70-71—212; T4) Will McFadden, Troy 71-71-70—212; 6) Austin Cherichella, FGCU 77-66-70—213; T7) five individuals with 214.

SOUTH ALABAMA SCORES
T12) Kevin Dahlberg* 71-72-72—215 (-1) ; T17) Jacob LeCroy 71-72-73—216; T20) Jordan Plunkett 77-67-73—217; T30) Jack Hearn 75-74-70—219; 32) Will Skipp 71-75-74—220; T52) Eli Mitchell 73-80-72—225.
*denotes competed as an individual

TEE SHOTS
-The event featured 90 individuals from 15 different schools.
-This was the Jaguars' best finish in the team standings in four appearances at the tournament.
-South ended up third in the field in scoring on par-four holes and fifth on par threes while posting 181 total pars, 17 more than any other squad competing.
-Dahlberg became the first Jag to shoot par or lower in all three rounds of an event since Yannick Schütz accomplished the feat at the initial tournament of last spring, the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate; Kyle Robinson was the most recent player in the program to turn the trick on the road with a 214 total at the season-opening Jim Rivers Intercollegiate in September 2020.
-Plunkett and Dahlberg were two of just 10 individuals competing to finish below par on the course's par fours after going 2 under and 1 under, respectively.
-It's the second time in as many tournaments this fall that Plunkett has recorded the team's low 18-hole score following a bogey-free 67 in the second-round.
-The senior posted his first top-20 performance since tying for 19th place at the Craft Farms Intercollegiate the final week of March.
-It was the third time in the last five events dating back to last spring that LeCroy has finished among the top 20 in the individual standings.
-LeCroy shot par or better in two of the three rounds of the tournament, the first time he's accomplished the feat since doing so at the Bayou City Collegiate Classic in the final outing of the regular season last April.
-Hearn paced USA in the last round with his third 18-hole score below par this fall.
-The duo of Skipp and Mitchell tied for fifth individually after recording 38 pars each over the event's 54 holes.
-Skipp equaled his low round from a year ago — set on the final day of the Mobile Bay Intercollegiate — with a 71 over the opening 18 holes that included a bogey-free 33 on the back nine.

THEY SAID IT
Head coach Ben Hannan
On the team's overall performance at the tournament: "It was a good week for us, we improved from our last event and got better.  We've been trying to build consistency and we got that this week, particularly in the last round with six guys shooting between 70 and 74; that's good golf by everyone in the lineup, and it was close to being really good with a few putts and a break here or there.  We played a lot of consistent, solid golf, there were a lot of positives this week."
On the play of Kevin Dahlberg and Jacob LeCroy this week: "Both guys kept the ball in front of them and hit a lot of good shots this week.  Just because of the green complexes and slopes, they had to control their speed on the green and think about where to leave the ball, and they both managed that well throughout the tournament."
On how the Jaguars can build off the result moving forward: "Although we got more consistent play out of the group, there are still some little things we have to continue to tighten up.  On the stat sheet, we had the most pars of all the teams for the event but didn't take advantage of the par fives which is where you should make a lot of your birdies.  We need to get better there, so that will be a focus, and we will also continue our work with speed control and green reading; those are a couple of areas where we can get better, and in doing so it will help us take advantage of opportunities and shoot lower scores moving forward."

Up next: South is off until taking part in The Bentwater Intercollegiate, a three-day event beginning on Monday, Oct. 11, in Montgomery, Texas.

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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