Malchow leads NIACC at Iowa Central Invite

FORT DODGE - Freshman Bryce Malchow shot a 77 to lead the NIACC men's golf team Saturday on the first day of the Iowa Central Invitational.

Malchow sits in a tie for 24th place in the individual medalist competition at the Fort Dodge Country Club.

"I was pleased with how Bryce Malchow competed (Saturday)," NIACC coach Chris Frenz said, "and Eric Ritter put together a solid round."

NIACC shot a 323 as a team and sits in eighth place heading into Sunday's final round. Host Iowa Central is the team leader with a 289. Briar Cliff and Iowa Lakes are tied for second wtih a 301.

"The guys had it going pretty good (Saturday)," NIACC coach Chris Frenz said, "but then failed to bring it home on the last three or so holes.

"I think as a team we played the last three holes 15-18 over par."

Also for the Trojans on Saturday, Bradley Vaith and Jack Barragy shot a pair of 81s. Kai Nelles shot 84 and Andrew Crane shot 85.

Playing as individuals, Ritter shot 78 and Hunter Heintz shot 83.

"We have to better than that in order to compete in our region," Frenz said. "We have very good players and they are frustrated with their finish (Saturday), but hopefully we learn fro it and bounce back (Sunday)."

The second round of the invitational is set for Sunday.

"This was a small step back (Saturday)," Frenz said, "but honestly we did a lot more positive things (Saturday) than negative - except we just didn't finish."

Team standings - Iowa Central 289, Briar Cliff 301, Iowa Lakes 301, Illinois Central 305, Grinnell College 307, Alexandria Tech 315, Waldorf 322, NIACC 323, Westminister College 392.