There was just one shot, in sudden death, that separated the Iowa State men’s golf team from the top spot in the Pepsi/SMS Challenge in Springfield. After three rounds, the Cyclones were tied with Arkansas State and fell 18-19 during the play-off hole.

“The kids were extremely disappointed losing in the playoff,” ISU Coach Jamie Bermel said. “I think they were disappointed that they were in the playoff in the first place.”

The Cyclones were leading Drake by six shots and Arkansas State by 10 strokes heading into the final round.

“(Arkansas State) was playing well, and I knew they were really coming on,” Bermel said. “We had a couple guys have high scores, and that was the key to our loss.”

ISU was led by senior Matt Lewis, who shot rounds of 73-74-78 for a three-round total of 225. His score placed him third in the 93 golfer field.

Arkansas State’s low golfer shot a par 72 on the final round, making up six of the 10 stokes by himself.

“There was nothing we could do about his performance, we just didn’t finish strong,” Lewis said.

On the last day, the tournament was played in the midst of 40 mph winds.

“I was awfully disappointed in my last round and the way the team finished,” Lewis said. “The course was playing really tough and really long. We weren’t getting any kind of roll due to the rain we got the night before, and the last nine to 12 holes it was tough to just stand over the ball.”

Cyclone Jon Brackmann joined Lewis with a top-five finish, tallying two strokes more to take fourth place.

Zolton Veress of Arkansas State came away with medalist honors with a total of 217.

The Cyclones had three golfers tie for 11th place. Aaron Patton, Corey Chambers, and Scott Hart all shot a 235. Hart participated in the tournament playing as an individual. Jon Levy rounded out the Cyclone team, coming in 41st.

“Under the difficult conditions I thought we shot okay, but everyone had good and bad rounds,” Chambers said. “You could hit a great shot and it could go out of bounds or end up in a hazard.”

ISU will travel to Jonesboro, Arkansas on April 6-7 to compete at Arkansas State.

“We are certainly going down there to win,” Chambers said. “We definitely want to get those guys back on their own course.”