Sunday marked the last day of the season for the Eastern men’s golf team, as the Panthers finished in last place at the 11-team Ohio Valley Conference tournament. Sophomore Marcus Dahlin led the Panthers as he finished the tournament with 225 strokes.

Dahlin finished the first day of the tournament on Friday with 74 strokes and tallied 75 and 76 strokes, respectively on Saturday and Sunday. He tied for 31^st place overall and finished the tournament hitting nine-over-par.

Dahlin’s best par performances came last fall, when he was able to hit seven-over-par twice during the season at Chicago State and Austin Peay. At Chicago State, Dahlin tallied 151 strokes and finished tied for 13^th place for the Panthers. Almost a month later, he tied for 46^th place at Austin Peay, by tallying 223 strokes and hitting seven-over-par.

He averaged 76.92 strokes per round this season and finished the season with a five-over-par average.

At the OVC tournament, the Panthers finished with a combined 921 strokes, 11 behind 10^th place Tennessee State. Eastern Kentucky won the tournament by tallying 868 strokes for the entire tournament. Eastern finished the last two tournaments of the season in last place but did pick up a fourth place finish early in the fall season.

That finish came at Chicago State, where the Panthers placed fourth out of seven teams on a par-72 course. Eastern was led by sophomore Ryan Hughes, who finished tied for 10^th place and tallied 149 strokes and finished hitting five-over-par. That remains Eastern’s only top 10 finish in individual competition this season.

Hughes averaged 83.91 strokes per round this season and averaged 12-over-par per tournament.

Hughes’ brother, sophomore Daniel Hughes competed in all nine of the Panthers tournaments in both the fall and spring seasons. His best finish also came at Chicago State, as he totaled 150 strokes finished tied for 11^th place, not far behind his twin brother.

Hughes averaged 78.92 strokes per round this season and had an average of seven-over-par per tournament.

Senior Oscar Borda led the Panthers in averaged strokes per game, as he finished with 76.68 strokes per hole, and had an average of four-over-par per tournament. Last fall, he finished tied for 14^th place at DePaul after hitting 229 strokes at the three-day tournament.

Borda competed in every tournament in this his final collegiate season. He is one of three seniors that the Panthers will lose, including Brady Welsh and James Jansen.

Both Jansen and Welsh ended their collegiate careers, averaging 77.81 and 79.22 strokes per rounds, respectively. Jansen hit five-over-par per tournament, while Welsh hit eight-over-par this season. All three seniors competed at the OVC tournament, their last one as Panthers.

Blake Nash can be reached at 581-2812 or banash@eiu.edu