Senior men’s golfer Wade Thompson found SIU one spot behind his former team, Murray State Monday, but led SIU Tuesday to finish ahead of the Racers.

The Salukis finished third out of nine teams at the Skyhawk Classic at the Paris Landing State Park, in Buchanon, Tenn.

“To have six guys finish in the top twenty, in the top half of the field, that’s exciting and encouraging,” coach Justin Fetcho said. “It shows that guys are getting better and we’re moving in the right direction.”

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Alabama State won the tournament at 11-under par.

SIU shot one-under par. Thompson posted the best score on the team at 7-under par and earned a third place individual finish. On the longer par five holes Thompson was 8-under par.

Murray State finished fifth at 15-over par.

“I hit a lot of fairways and I hit a lot of greens,” Thompson said. “I played the par fives really well. They were really short out there, I just played smart enough on those holes.”

Junior Drew Novara finished ninth at even par.

All of the Salukis finished in the top 20. Senior Steven Souchek was 3-over and finished 13th. Senior Andrew Mitchell and sophomore Charles Hawn were each 6-over and tied for 19th with junior Ryan Haxel, who competed as an individual for his first tournament of the year.

“Every tournament and every day is important to me,” Haxel said. “It’s been a good opportunity for me this week to get in the lineup and play well. I left some shots out there, but it was a good start for me.”

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Last week, SIU dropped six spots at the Cardinal Intercollegiate in Louisville, Ky. on day two to finish 15th.

“We put that behind us,” Fetcho said. “We put in some hard work at practice and stepped out here and performed the way we needed to.”

The Salukis have their last fall season tournament, the APSU Intercollegiate, Oct. 20-21 in Hopkinsville, Ky.

“We want to win and we want to play well,” Fetcho said. “That’s the last tournament we’re going to have for three months. We gained a lot of momentum from this and we’ll work hard in practice here in the next couple of weeks.”

Aaron Graff can be contacted at [email protected], @Aarongraff_DE or 536-3311 ext. 269