Eastern’s men’s golf team is looking to improve its rankings from last year.

The Panthers took seventh place out of the 13 teams last year in the DePaul Invitational.

Last year, senior David Lawrence, senior Kevin Flack, senior Gino Parrodi and junior Tommy Ponce all placed in the event.

Lawrence led all of the golfers on the team with a four-over-par 220 total, taking seventh place out of 73 competitors in the Invite.

Flack took 56th place last year, Parrodi took 65th place last year and Ponce took 24th place last year.

Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis won the invite last year with Florida Gulf Coast, Detroit Mercy, Loyola (Chicago), Oakland and South Florida finishing ahead of the Panthers.

So far this season, the Panthers have taken fourth place out of 12 teams at the Wasioto Winds MSU Fall.

So far the best men’s golfer is David Lawrence, who took individual championship honors at the Kickoff.

Lawrence had an eight-under-par score of 208 of individual round scores of 68, 70 and 70, as he helped Eastern get fourth place.

Lawrence also passed 74 other competitors, including having a one stroke lead against Bryan Ratterman of Bellamine who took second place in the event.

Eastern finished with a combined score of 867 to end up just three-over-par in the event.

The team winner was Northern Kentucky who ended up with a seven-under-par 857 score.

But also in this competition the Panthers also beat out Ohio Valley Conference competitors Morehead State (873/6th), Tennessee Tech (889/9th) and Murray State (893/10th).

The Panthers will take part in the DePaul Invitational on Oct. 7 at the Ruffled Feathers Golf Course in Lemont.

Grant A. Truccano can be reached at 581-2981 or gatruccano@eiu.edu.