April 17, 2001

BRANSON, Mo. - Matt Williams shot a school-record 7-under-par 64, to tie for a career-best third-place finish at the Branson Creek Invitational, played Saturday at the Branson Creek Golf Course. The event was a scheduled 72-hole affair, but adverse weather conditions forced the cancellation of Sunday's final round.

Williams, a junior from Holton, Kan., broke the previous school record of 67 set by both Brett Vuillemin at the Texas Intercollegiate on Sept. 26, 1988, and teammate Scott McNeely who shot 67 at the Purina Classic on Oct. 10, 2000.

"Obviously, Matt's round was the all-time record at K-State and that in itself is very exciting,"head coach Tim Norris said. "He made nine birdies in the round and it is evident how hard he has worked on his game. Matt has gone about improving his game the right way. It is all about pin pointing what areas need work and that is how you improve. Matt has done that."

As a team, the Wildcats utilized a second-round 273, the lowest one-round team score in school history, to finished second in the 10-team field. After the first round of play, K-State was tied for fourth with Iowa State, but used their final-round total to jump up three spots on the leaderboard and claim second place. The Wildcats finished one shot back of tournament champion Arkansas-Little Rock, which shot rounds of 275-282--557 to claim the title.

"In everybody that went, our worst individual finish was a tie for 24th and no other team can say that,"Norris said. "Not even Arkansas-Little Rock, which won the tournament. Nobody that played had the overall depth we did. It sure would have been nice to win the tournament, but I am proud of what these guys did. It goes back to the Cat Fight a week ago. Winning that dual gave us the shot of confidence we needed."

While Williams was busy setting school records, most of his teammates were busy setting personal ones, as every K-State participant shot at or below even par in at least one round.

Bryan Schweizer, who participated as an individual, shot rounds of 69-68--137 to tie for a career-best fifth-place finish. Each round for the Burlington, Iowa, native was a career best, as Schweizer became the third different Wildcat freshman to secure a top-five finish on the season.

Aaron Watkins claimed the third top-20 finish of his career, shooting a career-high tying 69 in the final round to tie for 11th.

After winning his lone match at the Cat Fight on April 8th, Dan Demory kept his strong play going, shooting rounds of 73-69--142, to tie for a career-best 13th-place finish. Demory, who is the squad's lone senior, shot the first sub-70 score of his career and bettered the 17th-place finish he had at last season's Northern Invasion Intercollegiate in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 28, 2000.

Bryan Milberger and A.J. Elgert rounded out the Wildcat scoring as each tied for 24th. Milberger shot his second sub-70 score of the season in the first round, a 3-under-par 68, while Elgert earned his third consecutive top-30 finish on the heels of an even-par 71 in the final round.

The Wildcats hope to keep their momentum going next week when they take part in the Big 12 Championship, April 23-24 at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kan.