ISU men’s golf coach Jay Horton had hoped his team would get off to a fast start this season.

Though an eighth-place showing at the Roadrunner Intercollegiate showed promise, the Cyclone golfers still have a long way to go to reach that goal.

“There were some good things [we did],” Horton said.

“As a whole, we could have done better. The first day we played well and were in position to have a strong week.”

Iowa State was in sixth place after the first 36 holes of play in San Antonio and was looking for a solid final 18 to move up in the standings.

The final round wasn’t as kind to the Cyclones as they had hoped it would be, with a score of 302 knocking them back into eighth place.

“We didn’t execute,” Horton said. “We were hoping that, coming out of winter, after 36 holes we would get the feel and the hang of things, and we hoped our third round would be our best.

“For whatever reason, we didn’t play well that day.”

Iowa State finished with team totals of 295-298-302 for a total of 895 over the 54-hole tournament.

Kansas ran away with the team title, finishing with an 856 total and a 14-stroke margin of victory over runner-up Baylor.

“Jeremy [Lyons] played OK,” Horton said. “He wasn’t happy [with his performance].

“Two twenty-five is an average score; it’s not good, and it’s not bad. Drew [Dalziel] and Curtis [Foster] were not bad but slipped up on the last day.”

Lyons finished in a tie for 31st place with 225 strokes, while Dalziel (t-52, 230) and Foster (t-60, 231) rounded out scoring for Iowa State.

Clark Smith, playing as an individual, recorded a score of 240.

While the team as a whole may not have done as well as hoped, Iowa State got an outstanding performance from sophomore Tyler Swanson.

Swanson put together rounds of 71-71-70, good for a 1-under par tournament total and a tie for third place.

“Tyler played great. It shows that he can come out of winter and compete [right away],” Horton said.

“He has all the physical talents in the world to be an unbelievable player,” he said.

Swanson had a legitimate chance at claiming victory until Baylor’s Ryan Baca birdied the final two holes to claim the individual championship.

“I played well coming out of the blocks,” Swanson said.

“But I’m disappointed in the fact that I had a chance to win and made two mistakes and missed a few putts down the stretch.”

A combination of Baca’s birdies and a shot of Swanson’s that found the water derailed the sophomore’s chances of winning.

Even though he didn’t come out on top, Swanson believes his experience at this tournament will help him when he gets back in contention.

“Mentally I won’t make the same mistakes,” Swanson said. “Learning [from your mistakes] makes you better when you put yourself in that position [to win] again.”