The Eastern men’s golf team wrapped up the 2016-17 on Wednesday with an 11th place finish in the Ohio Valley Conference Championship.

The bright spot throughout the season was sophomore Alvaro Hernandez who was the top finisher for Eastern in every meet. Hernandez posted two top five finishes including a second-place finish in the Western Illinois Beu Mussatto Invite where he broke the Eastern record for a three-round total.

Hernandez lost in a sudden death playoff, but shot a 54-hole total of 207 to break the record. His lowest round of the season was a 66 and his average round score during the season was 73.19.

As far as expectations for the season goes, Hernandez saw improvement from last year for the team.

“I think we played a bit better than last season, but we did not play our best in the last tournament,” Hernandez said. “Obviously, we were expecting to score better.”

Freshman Romeo Perez was the only other Eastern golfer that posted a top 10 finish during the fall and spring seasons. Perez had an average round of 79.05 and his lowest round total was a 72. Sophomore Charlie Adare’s lowest round score was a 68 and he averaged 78.95 per round.

The lowest three-round total for the men’s golf team this year was the first tournament of the season at the Eastern Kentucky Intercollegiate. Eastern shot a score of 904 and placed 17th out of 18 teams competing. The next best score was the Western Illinois Beu Mussatto Invite where they shot a 909 and finished 6th out of 14 teams.

The strongest part of the season was in the spring before the conference tournament for Hernandez.

“The tournaments before conference, I would say that we were able to put either a low round that helped the team a lot or four decent rounds,” Hernandez said.

The first tournament of the spring was at the Butler Florida Invitational. Eastern placed 7th in that tournament with a team score of 661. The next tournament of the spring was the Missouri State Twin Oaks Invite. Eastern had a three-round total of 925. At the Arkansas State Red Wolf Intercollegiate, Eastern improved its three-round total by one stroke for a score of 924.

In the fall, Eastern competed in the Southern Illinois-Edwardsville Derek Dolenc Invite, The Zach Johnson Invite and the F&M Bank Austin Peay Intercollegiate. Eastern will have the summer to prepare for next season.

Mark Shanahan can be reached at 581-2812 or mmshanahan@eiu.edu