Senior golfer Cyril Henault placed second individually in the stroke play portion of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship and also helped the Tritons advance to the medal match, where they lost a tiebreaker against McKendree. (Photo by Patrick Clark/Athlete’s Eye Photography)
Men’s Golf
After securing the top match play seed in last week’s Great lakes Valley Conference Conference championship, the 22nd-ranked University of Missouri–St. Louis men’s golf team played its way into the final round at Paradise Pointe Golf Compex in Smithville, Missouri, and split its five individual matches against McKendree, finishing with 2½ points each. But the Tritons lost their bid to repeat as conference champions, losing a tiebreaker decided by total score as the Bearcats prevailed by eight strokes. Joel Sylven and Nick Hedberg each won their matches with Sylven beating Thomas Tollefsen in Match No. 1 and Hedberg topping Rasmus Nilsson in Match No. 4. Leo Baudry earned UMSL’s last half point when he rallied to a draw with Griffin St. Pierre. UMSL beat Maryville 4-1 en route to the final with Juan Antonio Padilla, Cyril Henault, Hedberg and Baudry all winning their matches. UMSL will learn of its NCAA postseason bid on Friday. The Tritons were ranked second last week in the final Midwest Regional rankings. The NCAA Midwest/Central Regional Tournament will run May 11-13 in Winona, Minnesota.
Women’s Golf
Tove Brunell and Wilma Zanderau led the Tritons to a second-place finish in stroke play at the GLVC Women’s Golf Championship after placing among the top-10 individuals over the weekend at Paradise Pointe Golf Complex in Smithville, Missouri. But UMSL fell to third-seeded Illinois Springfield 3-2 in their semifinal match on Sunday. Brunell won her match by 10 strokes over the Prairie Stars’ Heather McLean, and Juliette Lecomte also secured a full point for the Tritons by beating Isabel Segel by one stroke. But no other UMSL golfer finished closer than two shots behind in their semifinal matches. Top-seeded Indianapolis ended up beating Illinois Springfield 3-2 in Sunday’s medal match. The Tritons will learn their postseason bid on May 2. The NCAA East Regional will be held May 8-10 at Panther Creek Golf Club in Springfield, Illinois.
Softball
UMSL swept its Saturday series against Maryville, winning the opener 4-1 before rolling to an 11-2 victory in five innings in the second game at Maryville. Pitcher Annie Scaramuzzi struck out 10 during her complete-game victory in the opener, surrendering only one run and three hits. She also drove in the last of the Tritons’ four runs. Center fielder Jamie Widule and catcher Riley Schultz each also had an RBI in the first game. UMSL capitalized on nine Maryville errors in the second game. Left fielder Maddie Snemis had two hits batting in the leadoff spot and scored three runs. Catcher Courtney Settles also had two hits, and third baseman McKenzie Lamos drove in a team-best two runs. Pitcher Jenna Towle struck out seven and surrendered three hits. UMSL (28-16, 14-6 GLVC) will wrap up its regular-season schedule this weekend when it plays host GLVC leader Indianapolis on Saturday and fourth-place McKendree on Sunday.
Baseball
The Tritons rallied from three runs down in their final at-bat Saturday in the second game of a doubleheader against No. 13 Quincy and picked up their first victory over a ranked team since 2018 when they defeated then-No. 22 Seton Hill. But that was UMSL’s only victory of the week as it dropped the other three games of the four-game series with the visiting Hawks, losing 4-1 on Friday, 6-1 in Saturday’s first game and 11-2 on Sunday. Designated hitter Jake Isaacs drove in the winning run with a single up the middle that pitcher Carter Endisch knocked down but couldn’t corral as Brandon Olion came around to score. Andrew Buescher, Logan Mantz and Bryce Kulinski each drove in two runs in the victory. The Tritons managed a total of 12 hits in the other three games. UMSL (21-21, 14-10 GLVC) will travel to Rolla, Missouri, for a four-game series against Missouri S&T beginning Friday before wrapping up the regular-season schedule the following week against Illinois Springfield.
Men’s and Women’s Track and Field
UMSL’s track and field teams combined for 20 top-20 finishes on Saturday at the Dewey Allgood Hexagonal in Rolla, Missouri. Haeley Johnson had three of those, including a second-place finish in the women’s long jump when she posted a mark of 15 feet, 8¾ inches. She was also fourth in the 100 meters with a time of 13.46 seconds and was 10th in the 200 meters in a time of 29.53 seconds. Men’s runners Benjamin VandenBrink and Jacob Warner placed finished second and third, respectively, in the 1,500-meter race with times of 3 minutes, 59.02 seconds and 4:00.77. Gavin Love took fourth in the men’s 800 meters with a time of 2:00.67, and Dominica Rooks was sixth in the women’s 400 with a time of 1:06.54 and eighth in the 200 with a time of 28.92 seconds. Lily Wagemann and Kayley Heeter led a group of five Tritons runners in the women’s 1,500, placing eighth and 10th, respectively. UMSL will next compete at Millikin Big Blue Friday Night Invite this Friday in Decatur, Illinois.
