Even though it only said “UW-Eau Claire” atop the leader board at the Illinois Wesleyan Invite on Saturday afternoon, the Blugolds can give a little credit to Mother Nature for their first tournament title of the season.

For the first time this season the men’s golf team was able to get some extended practice time outdoors and it showed Friday and Saturday on the Ironwood Golf Course in Normal, Ill.

“It feels great,” coach Todd Oehrlein said. “It was good we were finally able to get outside and get a lot accomplished.

“It was good to get to a tournament where we were finally comfortable.”

Last week the Blugolds were disappointed in their sixth-place finish at the Augustana (Ill.) Invitational. The team always wants to win the tournaments it competes in, junior Mark Christensen said, so it was good for the defending Div. III national champions to get back on the winning track.

“We hadn’t played good the week before,” said Christensen, who finished third overall at this weekend’s tournament. “It was a much needed confidence builder for the rest of the season,” he said.

The Blugolds were not originally going to travel to Normal over the weekend for the tournament because they had previously committed to play in the Gustavus Spring Invite. But the Minnesota school faced many of the same weather challenges the Blugolds were struggling with and postponed the tournament until April 28 and 29.

The Blugolds performed well at the Illinois Wesleyan tournament finishing eight strokes over par and out-pacing the closest competition, Fontbonne College (Mo.), by 19 strokes.

Junior Bill Conroy won the individual title for the Blugolds with an opening round 68 on the par 73 course. He finished the second day with a 73, four strokes in front of his teammate Christensen who shot a 71 and 74 for a 145 stroke total.

“It was really good to see (Conroy) break out,” Oehrlein said. “He had a couple tournaments (in the fall) where he put some good rounds together but he had a couple bad swings and let the round slip away.

“This weekend he didn’t let that happen.”