Zikas breaks school record, wins Siouxland Invite

By Jacob Knabel on Sep. 14, 2018 in Men's Golf

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa – By the time his career is complete, Nolan Zikas just might own the entire Concordia University men’s golf record book. The senior from La Vista, Neb., set another new standard with his performances over two days at the Siouxland Invitational, co-hosted by Northwestern and Dordt. Zikas shot back-to-back 69’s to win the event and break the program record for lowest 36-hole score at a single tournament (previous record was 69-74–143 by Reid Wiebe in 2015).

As a team, eighth-year head coach Brett Muller’s ‘A’ squad improved by 10 strokes on the second day of the event, which shifted from Orange City, Iowa, on Thursday to Sioux Center, Iowa, on Friday. The Bulldogs carded a 302-293–595 (par 71 on both courses) and placed fourth out of 16 teams.

Zikas has now shot even par or better in each of his first three rounds this fall. Zikas entered the Siouxland Invite with eight career top-five tournament finishes to his credit, but he had come up just short of claiming medalist honors since topping the leaderboard at the third and fourth GPAC qualifiers his freshman season. Zikas appears poised for a big senior season after claiming All-GPAC accolades in each of his first three seasons.

“Nolan the last two days just dominated,” Muller said. “He played pretty well to the greens. I’m very happy to see him set the school record. Some of his goals coming into the year was that he wanted to win titles and he wanted to set school records. He achieved two goals today.

“Nolan’s consistently in the hunt for individual titles. It was good to see him get over the hump with a good win early in his senior campaign.”

Nine Concordia golfers either equaled or improved upon their score from the first day of the invite. The rest of the first Bulldog grouping included juniors Tylar Samek (77-73–150; 19th), Josh Schaefer (76-75–151; 21st) and Colton Zulkoski (80-76–156; 33rd) and sophomore Jayden Neal (84-76–160; 41st).

In the second grouping of Concordia representatives, sophomore Harrison Helmer (83-77–160; 41st) put together a solid tournament. The rest of the ‘B’ squad featured freshman Landon Walkenhorst (91-85–176; 68th), senior Grant Suchanek (84-94–178; 70th) and freshmen William Christianson (96-85–181; 71st) and Nathan Auffet (106-88–194; 74th).

“I’m proud of our guys,” Muller said. “We definitely took a step forward today.”

Next up is the Midland Fall Invite at The Pines Country Club in Valley, Neb., on Wednesday, Sept. 19. It will be the final tournament before the GPAC Fall Championships (Sept. 24-25).