SIOUX FALLS – The University of Sioux Falls Men's Golf Team, which returns significant experience among its returners, will open their season on Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 13-14 at the 2021 Washburn Invitational in Topeka, Kansas at the Topeka Country Club.

The Cougars were picked 5^th in the NSIC Preseason poll earlier this month and will compete against fellow NSIC members University of Minnesota Crookston, Upper Iowa University, and Winona State in additional to other non-conference opponents in Kansas. USF will field a lineup that include seniors Gavin Metz, Jake Oetzmann and Jack Evans, along with sophomores Austin Boomsma and Anthony Cylkowski, who will play the 54 holes as a team. They will be joined by the individual entry of senior Nathan Woodall.

The 71-par, 6654 yard course at Topeka Country Club has played host to multiple tournaments over the years including in March of this year when USF shot 902 and placed fourth overall with a Jack Evans 11^th place finish. The Washburn Invitational will tee off on Monday, September 13 and conclude the following day. Stay tuned to USF_Cougars Twitter for results each day!

The Cougars, under the direction of first-year head coach Wade Merry, returns Metz, who is USF's Athlete to Watch in 2021. He placed third at the NSIC Championships and was named NSIC Newcomer of the Year in 2021. Also back will be senior Jack Evans, senior Jake Oetzmann and several others.

A year ago, the Cougars made their program-first NCAA DII regional appearance while ranking as high as seventh in the region. USF finished with the second highest scoring average in the NSIC at 299.9 and achieved the second best mark in second history with a third place finish at the NSIC Championships.

"The guys are excited to have a chance to play and I'm anxious to see how our lesser-experienced guys perform," said Merry. "We're counting on Jack, Jake, and Gavin to set the tone for our team this year and this is their first big chance to do that."
 
USF did lose an important group of seniors including Academic All-American JJ Cooney, a four-time all-NSIC performer; All-NSIC performer Brenden Bassing as well as Jacob Zosel who all contributed heavily to USF's scoring run to the NCAA DII Regionals for the first time as a program. That group set the bar high for USF Men's Golf as they placed top-five six times with a 15^th place finish at those NCAA Regional. USF will lean on Jack Evans (76.5 scoring avg.), and Metz (76.6 scoring avg.) along with Jake Oetzmann (81.89) who will look to sustain the great play of last year's team.

"I think this year is going to come down to making sure everyone on the team buys into our program," said Evans, an Academic All-NSIC member. "With some good quality play this year, hopefully we can give regionals a run again."