Hutchinson CC Sports Information
LUBBOCK, Texas – The Hutchinson Community College men's golf team had its ups and downs again on Friday in the final round of the NJCAA Division I Men's Golf Championship at The Rawls Course.
The upside was another back-nine surge by sophomore Doug Rios-Ceballos in helping the Blue Dragons finished in an 11th-place tie in the team standings. It's the second-straight season the Blue Dragons finished 11th.
The Blue Dragons are the highest-placing Jayhawk Conference team in the 2018 championship, edging Dodge City by four strokes.
The downside was a tournament-high 307 on Friday. The Dragons tied John A. Logan College at 1,197. The Blue Dragons had to count scores of 72, 77, 78 and 80 on Friday.
Hutch had team rounds of 293, 303, 294 and 307.
Doug Rios Ceballos finished the third round with six birdies in his final 11 holes. He had a similar close on Friday. Shooting 3-over par on the front nine, Rios-Ceballos had four birdies and a bogey on the back nine to climb back to even-par 72.
Rios-Ceballos tied for 17th at 2-over 290 and is the Jayhawk Conference's top individual finisher.
After Tuesday's tremendous start to the championship, sophomore Matt Percy struggled in his final nine holes on Friday. Two-under at the turn, Percy finished the round at 6-over 78. He closed the championship tied for 39th at 10-over 298.
Sophomore Cole Gritton shot a closing-round 80 on Friday and finished the championship tied for 61st at 304 (+16).
Freshman Max Smith shot 5-over 77 on Friday and ended up tied for 79th place at 310.
Sophomore Andrew Rios-Ceballos closed with a 9-over 81 and finished 90th overall at 317.
Hutchinson's District III rival Indian Hills repeated as the team national champion with a team score of 21-under 1,131. The Warriors were nine strokes better than runner-up Iowa Western.
Iowa Western's Joel Durnford went wire-to-wire to capture the individual championship at 15-under 273.