Senior wins tournament, golf team places ninth

Steve Wheatcroft will rest a little easier this week. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for his teammates.\nThe senior golfer had established himself as a pillar of strength and consistency for the IU golf team during the past four years but remained without a tournament victory. That changed Tuesday with his outing at the Xavier Invitational.\n"It's incredible," Wheatcroft said. "I've been waiting for this for four years. It's nice to finally have one under my belt. I've been close before, but things have never fallen into place."\nWheatcroft finished the two day, 54-hole event with a score of 209 (70-69-70), one shot ahead of Michigan's Scott Hayes.\nWheatcroft's victory was the best individual score from an IU player since the event switched to a three-round format in 1994-95.\n"That's news to me," Wheatcroft said. "I don't know numbers."\nOutside of Wheatcroft's individual accolades, the team had little to celebrate at The Golf Center at Kings Island, also known as "the Grizzly" course. Despite boasting the tournament champion, IU finished just 9th out of 20 teams in the competition. After Wheatcroft, the next best IU totals were sophomore Aldo Jordan and junior Rich Thomas with matching 227 scores, tying for 48th.\n"I'm a little disappointed that we didn't play better than we did," Wheatcroft said. "I wish the team had played a little better, but the competition was pretty good. There were a lot of good players out there."\nFreshman Mike Castleforte was among the disappointments. Coming off a spectacular performance at the Northern Intercollegiate, big things were expected of the rookie as he grew up close to the Grizzly and had played it before. He finished in a tie for 72nd with a score of 232 (79-75-78).\n"I just played terrible," Castleforte said. "I'm very disappointed in myself. I just swung bad the whole weekend and never really got it back. Steve played great though. I feel bad no one could help him out."\nAlso competing for IU was freshman Kirk Wood, who finished with a score of 237. Wisconsin took home the tournament crown with a combined score of 875. \nThe team will look to bounce back next week at the Legends Intercollegiate. Wheatcroft said some fine-tuning with the lineup may be in order.\n"We're still in the part of the season where we try to figure out who our best five is and I don't think we've found them yet," said Wheatcroft. "I think we're getting closer ... I'm just hoping we can find a team that's ready to go to Legends next week."\nBut until then, the new Xavier Invitational Champion will remain the center of attention.\n"Steve had an outstanding tournament, and he came through big time," coach Mike Mayer said in a press release Tuesday. "It's his first collegiate win. He played smart and hard and he is well deserving of the win. I'm very proud of Steve, and I look forward to him continuing his stellar play"