Castle ties for 17th at Verhille Invite

IOWA CITY - NIACC sophomore Tim Castle tied for 17th place at The Verhille Invitational Wednesday at the Finkbine Golf Course.

Castle, who prepped at Newman Catholic, shot 69-85 - 154. Baker University's Gabe Escalera was the individual medalist with a 72-71 - 143.

"Tim had an outstanding day (Tuesday)," NIACC coach Chris Frenz said of Castle, who held the first-day lead with his 69, "and just couldn't get it going (Wednesday). That happens, but he's a guy that will learn from this and build on it from here."

NIACC placed 10th as a team with a 312-335 - 645. Park University won the team title with a 302-296 - 598.

Also for the Trojans, Elic Fjetland shot 80-80 - 160, Anders Palmquist shot 76-86 - 162, Jackson Koebernick shot 85-85 - 170, Tommy Birdsell shot 85-88 - 173 and Mitchell Staudt shot 90-85 - 175.

"The weather conditions were not ideal for scoring (Wednesday)," Frenz said, "and the course setup was more difficult overall than (Tuesday), not that (Tuesday) was easy.

"It was windy, cold and spitting rain throughout the round and we just didn't handle it great. These tournaments are great to play in because hopefully we learn from this."

NIACC returns to action Monday at the Haweye CC RedTail Invitational in Dike.

"The teams in this tournament (The Verhille Invitational) are solid teams," Frenz said, "and I think we represented ourselves pretty well.

"We're looking forward to Fox Ridge in Dike on Monday."

Team standings - Park University 302-296 - 598, Mount Mercy 297-303 - 600, Hastings College 302-307 - 609, St. Ambrose 306-311 - 617, Baker University 303-316 - 619, Bellevue University 308-317 - 625, Illinois Central 315-314 - 629, St. Ambrose B 308-324 - 632, Clarke University 312-325 - 637, Mount Mercy B 309-328 - 637, Mount Mercy C 323-320 - 643, NIACC 310-335 - 645.