The Falcon men’s golf season ended this past weekend on a disappointing note with the team finishing eighth out of nine teams competing in the 2009 Mid-American Conference Championships at the Brickyard Crossing golf course in Indianapolis, Ind. ‘We finished eighth, but I thought we played better than that,’ said BG coach Garry Winger. The bright spot for the team was junior captain Matt Schneider. Schneider finished in a tie for fifth with an even par 288 for the four round tournament. ‘I thought I did as much as I could,’ Schneider said. ‘[The tournament as a whole] really didn’t shape up the way we wanted.’ Schneider’s performance garnered him All-Tournament honors and was the only member of the All-Tournament team whose team did not finish each first or second. Schneider was also honored by the conference with First Team All-MAC honors. He was named MAC Golfer of the Week three times, averaging 73.82 strokes per round. ‘Very proud of Matt,’ Winger said. ‘We haven’t had [a first team All-MAC performer] since Nick Myers in 1995.’ Schneider mentioned that he knew he was probably on the border of first or second team All-MAC and wanted a good performance at this tournament to put it over the edge. Despite Schneider’s stellar performance, the team was never really in contention for the overall team title – which was won by Kent State with a collective score of 16 under par 1,136. The Golden Flashes dominated the tournament in both individual and team phases. The KSU collective four round score of 1,136 was better than the second place team, Eastern Michigan, by 19 strokes. The Flashes also dominated the individual portion of the tournament with four members placing in the top five of the tournament. KSU’s John Hahn won the tournament with a nine under par 279. Hahn’s teammates Brett Cairns and Mackenzie Hughes finished in second and third with a five under par 283 and two under par 286 collectively. The fourth dominant Golden Flash was Nick Latimer who finished in a tie with Schneider at even par for the tournament. ‘It seems [Kent State and Eastern Michigan] dominate every year,’ Schneider said speaking on the fact that he was the only member of the All-Tournament team not from one of those two schools. While the Golden Flashes dominated, the Falcons couldn’t really get anything going to the point where contention for a title was in reach. After Schneider’s performance of even par 288 for the tournament, the next-highest finishing Falcon was freshmen Drew Preston – who finished in a tie for 25th with a 12 over par 300. The other freshmen, Parker Hewit, finished one stroke behind Preston with a 13 over par 301. Bryan Mitchell rounded out the Falcon scoring with a 21 over par score of 309 which was good for 41st place. The Falcons only had four scores count due to junior captain John Powers being disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard in the final round in which he posted a 72. Had the 72 counted, it would have been Powers’ best score of the tournament by seven strokes. ‘Just a bad week for me,’ Powers said. ‘I got a little distracted when they were signing and just missed it. ‘All in all I think I let the team down in every round.’ Powers mentioned that the team is counting on him to post good scores and that he’ll work hard in the summer so that it doesn’t happen again. ‘It should never happen but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing,’ Winger said. ‘I know John has learned from it and will never do it again.’