LANCASTER (OH) - Sunday & Monday, the Marian University Ancilla Men's Golf team began the second half of their already historic season at The Commemorative, hosted by Hocking College. With gusting and swirling wings approaching 25 mph throughout the 2-day event at Lancaster Golf Club, the Chargers were presented with an incredibly tough obstacle to begin the Spring season. With weather limiting the Chargers to only a week's worth of practices heading into the event, Head Coach Andrew Dreibelbis wasn't expecting peak form, but after arriving at the course and examining the conditions, his expectations were adjusted even more. When asked about the team's chances, he responded with, "I was hoping to continue our momentum from the end of the Fall season and wanted to score around 315 as a team each round, but we've moved that goal to somewhere between 320 and 325 for Round-1 after seeing the course and practicing the night before."

 

Lancaster Golf Club proved to be a massive challenge, not only to the Chargers, but to the rest of the field as well. While the course itself is not very long, the small and demanding greens proved to be difficult to maneuver. Dreibelbis added, "there are definitely the toughest greens we will see all year; I've never seen so many 3-putts from our guys. Fortunately, no one from our team struggled more than that, however, I saw several players from other teams putting 4 or more times on some holes. The pin placements even felt like they were placed for a Sunday professional round finale." The Chargers all struggled with nerves on the first hole, and some settled in after that, but others continued to struggle with nerves throughout Round-1. Marian Ancilla finished the round with a total of 331 and no one in the 70s individually. However, less than 10% of the field scored in the 70s during the opening round, so it was difficult for all parties involved.

 

"I tried to temper expectations ahead of Round-1, because Spring golf is always different from the Fall when you've already been playing for several months and are in peak form by September," commented Dreibelbis. He continued, "When the Spring rolls around, we've been stuck inside for 3 to 4 months and it takes a little while longer to round back into form. I think the guys quickly realized they had set their goals a little too high in Round-1, and I think they put additional pressure on themselves as the round wore on, leading to higher than normal scores."

 

The Chargers did regroup in Round-2 and fought back to finish 2nd overall out of 8 total schools, with most being 4-year institutions. They finished 1st of the 3 Junior Colleges in attendance. The team posted a second round scored of 323, just 2 strokes behind the Round-2 score of the winning school, but they dug too big of a hole on Day-1 to rise to the top of the field. Day-2's score of 323, while still well behind their season average, was much improved from Day-1, and the entire team seemed to play with a better mindset and more realistic goals on Monday.

 

Freshman Juan Pablo Benavente and Sophomore Hunter Zdyb continued their back & forth at the top of the Charger lineup, as Juan finished in a tie for 4th Place overall with a 158 (80 R1 | 78 R2), while Hunter finished tied for 9th Place overall with a 162 (83 R1 | 79 R2). "In an 8-team, 47-player field, it was great to see the entire team bounce back from some early adversity and finish strong," finished Dreibelbis.

 

Next up for the Chargers is the Marian Ancilla Tournament at their home course of Swan Lake Resort (Plymouth, Indiana), this Friday, April 3rd. Tee times begin at 10:00a, and this is the first MCCAA conference event of the year for the Western Conference teams. Marian Ancilla finished 2nd in this event a year ago and will look to bring home their first trophy of 2026. Please come out and support these talented young men, if you are able!!