The ISU men’s golf team ended their mini-Spring Break on Sunday and returned home with one career-low score and an 11th-place finish out of 17 teams at the St. Croix Collegiate Classic in the Virgin Islands.

The Cyclones continued to show improvement by posting a season-low 54-hole score of 891, led by freshman Chris Baker’s 2-under-par 214 (70-71-73).

“I’ve been pleased with the steady progression of the team as things have been going along lately,” said ISU coach Jay Horton. “Chris Baker played great this tournament and really everybody — at least in San Antonio if not St. Croix — has had at least one pretty good round.”

Baker’s career-low 214 was good for a 5th place finish in the tournament. If not for a late stumble, scoring an eight on the final hole, he was in position to take the individual title.

John Elizondo of Texas-San Antonio won the tournament with a 5-under-par 211.

“(Baker is) starting to feel comfortable being one of the better players on the team and knows he can go out and win tournaments,” Horton said.

Although Baker said he knows an opportunity may have slipped through his fingers in St. Croix, he said he hopes he can learn from it.

“[On Sunday], I was five under through 15 holes and then I let it go off a little bit.”

Horton saw many positives from a team standpoint at this tournament as well, and said the team’s consistency is getting better.

“We played some good golf, but there’s always stuff to focus on and work on,” Horton said.

“They’re starting to learn what it takes as a team to be up there.”

Although Iowa State was led by Baker, Rodney Hamblin contributed a top-50 performance, notching a 224 (74-78-72) for the Cyclones and placing 36th.

Curtis Foster continued to improve from injury with a 227 (74-72-81), good for 54th place overall.

“Curtis has improved from a health standpoint,” Horton said. “I was looking at him in the fall thinking he was about 80 percent, but it was more like 50. You can tell just by watching him now how injured he was in the fall.”

Drew Dalziel’s 232 (79-78-75) and Joe Cermak’s 235 (75-76-84) rounded out the scores for Iowa State.

Iowa State’s next tournament is scheduled for March 15-16 in Phoenix for the Pioneer Classic.