MVC Championship Central
The Missouri State men's golf team has been picked to finish third in a vote of league coaches at the Missouri Valley Conference Championship, to be held Monday and Tuesday (Apr. 23-24) at Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau, Mo. The league's nine schools will begin tournament play Monday with 36 holes and conclude with the final 18 holes on Tuesday. The winner will earn the league's automatic bid to NCAA Regionals. MSU will be in search of its second Valley championship and first since 1993.
Illinois State was the coaches' unanimous pick for the top spot as the Redbirds collected 81 total points. Southern Illinois was picked for second with 69 and then the Bears with 64. Bradley was fourth (55), followed by Drake (44), UNI (28), Evansville (27), Valparaiso (23) and Loyola (14).
Missouri State has four players, all juniors, ranked in the top 10 in the conference in scoring average.
Adam Fisher is second with a 71.93 mark,
Jack Knoesel third at 72.00,
Kory Franks fourth at 72.83, and
Brad Carpenter eighth at 73.15. Fisher was an all-conference selection a year ago and won the Twin Oaks Intercollegiate last month. Carpenter was a medalist back in the fall at the Southern Miss/Sam Hall Intercollegiate and Knoesel leads the Bears with three top-10 finishes. Sophomore
Lukas McCalla will round out the lineup for Coach
Neal Stafford after posting a 75.22 scoring average during the regular season.
The Bears placed fourth at the Valley tournament last year with Knoesel leading the way with a sixth-place finish.
