What a difference a year makes.

The ISU men’s golf team secured a tie for second place at the Jayhawk Invitational in Lawrence, Kan., on Tuesday.

In only their second tournament of the fall, the Cyclones finished higher than they did in any tournament last season.

“Sixth place [last week] and second place definitely beats where we were last year at this time,” said coach Jay Horton. “I think the guys saw that they have a team that can go out and compete with any of these guys and win these tournaments. We would’ve liked to finish second outright or win the tournament, but we held on to where we were.”

Iowa State again got solid play from its newcomers. Freshman Cameron White had the low score on the team in the final round, shooting a 72. Junior college transfer Cedric Bertin was right behind him with a 73. White and junior Joe Cermak tied for the 54-hole low score on the team with scores of 220.

“Cameron and Cedric were really big lifts to us, being able to hold us in there today and help us with that finish,” Horton said.

After a season in which the Cyclones finished dead last in the Big 12 championships, the hot start may be just what the doctor ordered.

“Getting second place for our second tournament of the year after the season we had last year, I think everyone on the team is pretty satisfied,” White said.

Although the exact reason for the turnaround is still a little unclear, the consensus theory is that depth and consistency are playing a big part. Those two things were missing last year.

“Right now, we have all five spots in the lineup performing,” Horton said.

“We weren’t consistent last year. Everybody is so good out there, you’ve got to have five guys play well at the same time.”

Although he wasn’t part of last year’s team, White agreed with the assessment.

“There’s just a lot of depth,” he said. “From week to week, anyone on the team could be playing.”