The Iowa State men’s golf team had a disappointing 12th place finish out of 18 teams at the Stevinson Ranch Invitational last week.

The tournament was considered by many on the team as a crucial tournament for regional seeding.

“We didn’t play well from top to bottom,” head coach Jamie Bermel said. “We dug ourselves in a big hole in the first round, but we almost came back.”

For the first time in a long time, no Cyclone golfer finished near the top of the pack. Senior Matt Lewis finished tied for 21st for the team. Jason Knutzon finished tied for 29th, and Jon Brackmann finished tied for 44th to round out the only Cyclones in the top 50.

“Our first round killed us,” Lewis said. “The conditions were great, but we just dug ourselves in a hole.”

No Cyclone broke par (72) for one round in the tournament, let alone the first round, when scores ranged from 73 to 81.

Lewis also said the team made stupid mistakes, but the team had a good mindset when it went out west.

“We were there the whole week, and we were thinking positive the last half of the week,” he said.

He also said the performance was disappointing and that the team had high expectations, but they can’t dwell on it.

“We can have a positive mindset at the next two tournaments,” he said. “We’ve seen the courses and can score well on them. I feel that the more you play a course, the better you get on it, which will help us.”

The field at Stevinson was a “good field” according to Bermel, and the competition was tough as well.

“Some of the teams, like Kansas, just got hot,” Bermel said.

Kansas took both the team and individual titles. The team finished with a total of 866, eight strokes ahead of Fresno State and 43 ahead of ISU. Jake Istnick of the Jayhawks defeated Joel Kribel of Stanford in a tiebreaker for individual medalist honors.

The next two tournaments before the Big 12 tournament are big for the Cyclones.

“We’re hoping for a top-2 or 3 finish, which would be great,” Lewis said. “We’ve proven we can score well on the courses.”

“We didn’t destroy ourselves at the Stevinson,” Bermel said. “We’re still OK, but the next two weeks we need to play well.”

“We’re getting more comfortable with our swings,” Bermel said. “This week will be a key week for practice.”

Lewis said the team is taking one meet at a time.

“Our goal is to get [to regionals],” he said. “We need to play solid golf to get there. After that, it depends who gets hot.”

One of those two tournaments is the Arkansas State Invitational in Jonesboro, Ark., April 5-6.