The season has concluded for the ISU golf team as the team finished play at the Big 12 Championships at the Prairie Dunes golf course in Hutchinson, Kan.

The Cyclones finished in a tie for 11th with a team score of 1,220. No. 1 Oklahoma State won with a team score of 1,139, and had three of the top six golfers playing for them including medalist Morgan Hoffman, who carded a total score of 280 for an even par.

Leading the Cyclones was sophomore Borja Virto who fired rounds of 78, 71, 75 and 76 for a total of 300. Virto showed flashes of good golf throughout the tournament, and held a lead after the first nine holds of the fourth round, including the No. 1-ranked amateur in Peter Uihlein. With this tournament, Virto has led the Cyclones in four of the last five tournaments and capped off a strong spring.

“Borja has grown a lot from August to now,” said assistant coach Patrick Datz. “When we got here we recognized what kind of a talent he is, and he’s only going to get better as he matures.”

Behind Virto was junior Michael Wuertz with rounds of 74, 77, 80 and 79 for a 310 total and a tie for 50th. Another junior, Nate McCoy, finished right behind Wuertz with a 312. McCoy shot only one over par with a 71 in round three, but struggled in the other three rounds shooting a combined 31 over par.

The lone senior Nathan Leary had a meet similar to McCoy’s. Leary also shot a mere two over in the third round, but in the other three rounds he also shot 31 over par. Tom Lathrop finished one shot behind Leary with a 313.

“This shows that we’ve got a lot of improving to do,” Datz said. “They’ve been improving and working on things, but if we want to compete at that high level, we’ve got a long ways to go.”

This caps of what was a season of peaks and valleys for the Cyclones. At one point in the fall, McCoy medaled at the VCU Shootout, and the next meet the Cyclones finished in second in a field of 18 teams at the D.A. Weibring Invite. After those two tournaments, they limped into the winter off-season finishing in the bottom half of their last two meets.

“There were a lot of ups and downs this whole year,” Datz said. “Even with all those, I’m still pleased at the type of progression we’ve made this season.”

This spring also had its fair share of strong and weak points. At the Desert Shootout, the team set the school record for a 54-hole score. At the meet, the team had four golfers in the top 30 including Lathrop, who led the Cyclones with a sixth-place finish.

After the Desert Shootout, things “didn’t slowly decline, but dropped straight off,” Datz said.

In the last five meets, the Cyclones finished in the bottom half of each one.

Even with the decline this spring season, the golfers aren’t pouting, or hanging their heads. Instead they’re already looking forward to next year.

With four starters returning, and a young group of recruits loaded with talent, the team knows it can do some big things next year.

“Making regionals is our goal,” McCoy said. “We’ve got three seniors coming back and with Borja will be a junior, we’re going to be a lot more competitive next year, and regionals is definitely attainable.”