April 18, 2005

DECATUR, Ala. - (Monday, April 18, 2005) The Southeast Missouri State Redhawks golf team opened up the 2005 O'Reilly Ohio Valley Conference Golf Championships with an opening round score of 291 (+3) Monday afternoon at Burningtree Golf Course in Decatur, Alabama. The score ties the Redhawks with Murray State and Eastern Kentucky for third place four strokes behind leader Samford.

The Redhawks score was bolstered by two great individual opening rounds by senior Brian Sheehan (St. Albans, MO.) and sophomore Zack Decker (Ste. Genevieve, MO.). Sheehan sits tied for fourth with a two-under 70 and Decker trails his teammate by one stroke with a 71.

Sheehan hit a 35 in the front nine in the par 72 and matched that with another 35 in the back nine. His score of 70 was a season low besting his previous best of 73.

Decker was equally impressive and showed great resiliency after opening with a 40 on the front nine. He bounced back on the back nine hitting a opening round best 32 for his score of 71.

Senior Matt Hillis is tied for 21st with a 74 (+2).

Brandon Couch is tied for 34th with a four-over 76 and Mark Schmitz is tied for 48th with a 78 (+6).

As a team Samford shot 287 (-1) followed by Austin Peay with a score of 290 (+2).

Individually Austin Peay's Justin Metzger leads with a 68 (-4) followed by Eastern Kentucky's Clay Ballard and Morehead State's Lee Chaney with scores of 69 (-3).

The second round resumes tomorrow at Burningtree Golf Course with teams teeing off at 8:00 a.m.