Huntingdon men’s golf looking for strong spring season

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon men's golf team is looking for a return to national prominence this spring.

Coming off a disappointing spring in which the Hawks missed the NCAA Division III Championships for the first time, Huntingdon showed improvement in the fall season. The Hawks expect to continue building this spring.

"Our main goal is to make it to the Division III Championships," Huntingdon Director of Golf Dave Schreyer said. "We're ranked 33rd in Division III entering the spring and we feel like we have a better team than our ranking shows.

"I think we should be ranked higher, but we're not quite there yet. We had a couple of opportunities in the fall that we let get by us and that hurt our ranking a little. But the guys have been working hard since then and I feel like we're in a pretty good spot right now."

Huntingdon opens the season this weekend in the Callaway Gardens Collegiate Invitational. The two-round tournament begins on Saturday.

Schreyer said this weekend, along with the Jekyll Island Collegiate Invitational in two weeks, will help the Hawks see where they stand.

"Right out of the gate, with Callaway and Jekyll Island, we'll see probably 20 of the top 30 Division III teams at each tournament," Schreyer said. "We'll have a good idea of where we stand during these first two events. If we have a good finish in one of the first two events, we're going to be in really good shape."

This season will also mark the Hawks' first as a member of the USA South Athletic Conference. Huntingdon is ranked fourth in the conference preseason poll behind LaGrange, Methodist and Greensboro. LaGrange enters the spring ranked fifth in the Golfstat Division III national rankings, Methodist finished third at the 2013 NCAA Division III Championships and Greensboro was 11th in the national tournament.

"The USA South is one of the most competitive golf conferences in Division III," Schreyer said. "Being in the conference gives us added incentive. The winner will get an automatic bid to the Division III Championships. If you don't win the conference tournament, but are in the mix, there is still a possibility of earning an at-large bid.

"We have work to do, but we want to be back in the Division III Championships this season."