The Kent State men’s golf team improved its score every round at this week’s Inverness Intercollege tournament, but it was not enough to avoid another average finish.

The Flashes score of 28-over-par 880 was good for another eighth-place finish on a tough course at Inverness Golf Club in Toledo.

“A few guys got off to a rough start and for some reason, we just couldn’t get it going,” said coach Jon Mills.

The Flashes shot 297-292 and 291 over the three rounds. But their final round was still below much of the field and dropped them from sixth to eighth place.

Mills emphasized that he doesn’t want to dwell on the finish because he sees a lot of good things happening on the team.

“I am still a firm believer that if we keep putting ourselves in this situation, it will go the other way soon,” Mills said. “Obviously you don’t like finishing eighth, but we are still beating some good teams.”

Freshman Cade Breitenstine led the team with a score of three-over-par 216, tying for 11th.

“Cade played awesome,” Mills said. “Top five going into today, and he ended up finishing top 15. That is great for his confidence.”

Just behind Breitenstine were juniors Josh Gilkinson, tied for 17th at four-over-par, and Will Kurtz, tied for 22nd at five over.

“Josh was still around 15th, one stroke behind Cade,” Mills said. “That is his worst finish of the year, and that’s still pretty darn good golf.”

The team has a two-week break before its next action at the Fighting Irish Classic at Notre Dame. Mills said the team would use that time to instill a “competitive spirit.”

“A lot of it is trying to teach the guys to have a ‘battle’ approach — to go out there wanting to beat these guys,” Mills said.

Contact Owen MacMillan at [email protected].