No. 1 Bulldogs claim third

PERKINSTON — No. 1 Mississippi Gulf Coast finished third in the Wallace State Fall Invitation, the first of the 2017-18 season.

"There are a lot of possibilities with this team," Gulf Coast coach Tommy Snell said. "It's gonna be a fun ride this year. It looks like a really solid group. We just ran into a bad stretch in that second round, but other than that we played really consistently."

Brice Wilkinson (Fr. Madison Central/Madison) shot his second 2-under 70 of the tournament to finish second at 1-under, three shots off Brandon Lacasse of host Wallace State.

"That's really a bright spot," Snell said. "That's a freshman coming in there and taking charge. Same thing happened last year with Jackson (Wedgeworth) playing well at this tournament. That made our team that much stronger. "

Wallace State shot 873, beating Central Alabama by 16 strokes and the Bulldogs by 25. Meridian, the only other MACJC and NJCAA Division II team in the field, finished seventh at 924. All but one of the other schools were NJCAA Divison I teams.

Wilkinson made the All-Tournament team. Colby Blake (So., Parklane/Tylertown) shot 71 on Tuesday to finish at 10-over. They were two of only three golfers to finish in red numbers in the third round.

Wedgeworth (So., West Jones/Soso) was another three back.

Gulf Coast, which is ranked first in the preseason Bushnell Golfweek NJCAA Division II Coaches Poll, returns to action Oct. 23-24 in the first MACJC event of the season. It will be played at Eagle Ridge Golf Club in Raymond.

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