Led by Pochylko’s two-under effort Nicholls has strong showing in Koasati Pines Invitational

Chase Pochylko finished in a tie for 11th and the Nicholls golf team placed seventh in the 11-team field in the Koasati Pines Intercollegiate tournament held Monday and Tuesday at the Koasati Pines Golf Club in Kinder, La.

“I think it makes it easier when you can kind of see bits and pieces of things starting to get better like know you had hoped,” Nicholls coach James Schillig. “It’s still not where we want to be.”

Although the event was held near Lake Charles, it was hosted by Shilling and Nicholls.

Pochylko finished just outside the Top 10 in a field of 64 by shooing rounds of 77, 66, and 68 for a total of 214 at -2.

“He shot 77 the first round, I believe it what it was, so he was frustrated,” Schilling said of Pochylko. “Then got the next round. Today, he really got it going. That’s one thing about Chase, when Chase can get things going, he can make a lot of birdies, and he can make them in a row.

“He had a stretch today with all those birdies in a row. You start doing stuff like that, you’re going to be shooting in the 60s.”

Two other Nicholls players also finished in the Top 30.

Diego Prat Cruza shot rounds of 73, 69, and 76 for a 218 total of +2 to finish in a tie for 23rd.

Dylan Weber carded 77, 74, and 70 for a 220 total of +4. He finished in a tie for 27th.

Rounding out the scoring for Nicholls, Thomas Danielson shot rounds of 76, 75, and 80 for a 231 total of +15 to finish in the No. 51 position. He finished one spot ahead of teammate Jack Moro, who shot rounds of 80, 78, and 76 for a 234 total of +18.

“Those top five, that’s all first-year guys. Yeah, Diego Prat Cruza is a transfer, but that’s a first-year D-I player, and that’s four freshmen,” Schilling pointed out.

“We played a poor first round. They had it going and couldn’t hold on,” Schilling continued. “I kind of challenged them. I said, listen, when you start like you started the back nine of the first 18, we didn’t have a birdie. Not one. When you do that and you dig yourself that big of a hole, you gotta try to hold on. If you had an eight under try to finish at four or something like that, they didn’t do it. Today it was high, but the scores were high for everybody. They kept the team scoring coming down till the end.”

It was the best effort of the season for the Colonels. Keying the better scores was all five of the Nicholls team shooting lower scores in the second round than the first. That was in contrast to past efforts where poor second rounds allowed scores to soar.

Three of the Nicholls players followed up their second round with improved scores in Tuesday’s final round.

That came under some difficult conditions.

“We were at one point eight-under-par as a team, and we had the weather delay. We had to come in,” Schilling said. “We didn’t finish nearly as strong coming in. I get it. It’s a long day. You get tired, but we talked about that.

“The wind was blowing so hard this morning when we first started. It was brutal. We got up to eight or nine over or whatever it was. Credit them. Then they hung in there. They didn’t quit, and they worked their way back down to two-over-par. That was a good score today. That was our best round of the tournament because the conditions were hard.”

Southeastern Louisiana won the team title by shooting an 846 total at -18

Stephen F. Austin placed second with an 849 total at -15. Abilene Christian was third with a total of 856 and -8.

The University of New Orleans and Houston Christian tied for fourth with totals of 868 at +4.

Nicholls shot a total of 890 and +15 for its 11th-place finish.

Individually, Jaxon Griffith of Stephen F. Austin, and Liam O’Rourke of Texas Southern tied for first place. Both shot a 208 total at -8.

“My goal for the tournament was to set the golf course up distance-wise and hole location-wise to have no one double digits for the winner. That was eight-under-par. That’s what they got to over 54 holes,” Schilling said.

“The first round the wind did not blow. It was very, very calm and scoreable conditions. That’s when you have some of your lowest scores,” he continued. “The second round, the score was good, too, but you out there at six in the morning and you had the delay. We’re out there till dark. Some of the players just got tired; not just mine, others, too.

“Today, the first seven, eight holes, it was almost unplayable. It was blowing so hard. Then as we went on, the wind kind of tapered down.”

There was a three-way tie for third place among Matt Weber of UNO, Patrick Blaum of Southeastern, and Cameron Hubbard of SFA.

All shot a 210 total at -6.

Competing as an individual, Collin Jones of Nicholls shot rounds of 80, 84, 82 for a 246 total of +30 to finish 61st.

The Koasati Pines event was the first competition for the Colonels in a month. After some tough going in the fall and early in the spring, the return to competitive action came with a challenge from Schilling to his players.

“If you play Division I, the fields are deeper. The margin for error is smaller, and it’s the highest level that you can play at. Some people are cut out for it, some people aren’t,” Schilling said. “I told them, ‘you have to decide if this is something you want to do as a group. If you collectively want to change how things are going, you’re gonna have to put the work in. You’re going to have to get better. What you’re doing is not good enough. It’s not acceptable. I’m not saying you’re not trying, but the results are not there.’

“They could have taken that and folded, or they could accept the challenge and work, and that’s what they’ve done. They’ve worked. They’ve worked to improve, and they’ve practiced and their attention to detail has gotten better. They’re very coachable on the golf course. They listen. It’s a lot to ask of young men that age, but there’s definitely been some improvement there. All you have to do is look at the numbers of what we were shooting the fall and what we shot this week.”