The Missouri State men’s golf team closed the 2006 fall season with a third-place finish at the ORU Invitational Tuesday at the par 72, 6,893-yard Indian Springs Country Club in Broken Arrow, Okla.
    Oklahoma City University, the nation’s top-ranked NAIA school, took home the team crown with a three-round total of 10-over-par 874, while the Bears shot three consistent rounds of 295, 293 and 294 to finish eight strokes back at 882.
     Matt Sullivan came in third for Missouri State, opening with a first-round 73 and firing back-to-back one-under 71s in the final two rounds to close the tournament with a one-under 215 total, four strokes off the pace set by medalist Alex Hogben of UMKC. Freshman Jay McBride shot 221 (74-73-74) to finish 14th in the 66-player field.
     Junior Damaso Carrera was the first round leader after shooting a 69, but stumbled to an 82 in round two before finishing with a one-over 73 in the Tuesday’s final round to tie for 21st.
     Scott Glenn tied for 38th with a 232 (79-75-78) and Matt Cermak shot a 236 (86-74-76) to finish in a tie for 49th to round out the scoring for the Bears.
     The tournament concludes the 2006 fall season for the MSU men’s golf team. The first event of the spring is the Dick Witcoff/USF Invitational in Tampa, Fla., scheduled for March 3-4, 2007.