The St. Thomas golf team won its third consecutive MIAC championship Monday, Oct. 7 at Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan.

Senior Emmet Herb carried the Tommies with a 54-hole score of 211.

“The last two years we have been able to compete at the national championship,” Herb said. “It feels good to get that automatic bid again this year in my final season.”

The Tommies played with attitude this season after the MIAC decided to remove St. Thomas from the conference last spring.

“I probably have never been so motivated to win the MIAC than the next two years,” coach Scott Proshek said. “Somebody poked the sleeping bear.”

After round one, St. Thomas was in a three-way tie for second place, four shots behind St. John’s.

“The first round was super windy,” Herb said. “We played alright, but it was tough to make a bunch of birdies. We knew the next day was a little bit nicer weather so we tried to be more aggressive in round two.”

The Tommies showed that aggressiveness in round two by shooting a team score of 289. This helped advance the Tommies into first place during the final round, with an eight shot lead over Gustavus.

“While we are out there trying to beat other people, we have a lot of competition between our team,” Herb said. “That fuels what we do which is probably the biggest thing.”

In the final round, that friendly competition motivated them to shoot 284 as a team, which is a MIAC record for a single round team score.

“They’ve probably had the best fall season of any team in school history,” Proshek said. “The players knew they could be on a special team so they put in some hard work mainly during the offseason.”

St. Thomas earned the No. 11 spot in the country in the Division III coaches poll released on Sept. 27.

This MIAC Championship title gives the team an automatic invitation to the national championships in the spring.

The DIII Men’s Golf National Championship will be held in May at The Champion and The Fazio golf courses in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.

Joey Swanson can be reached at swan5350@stthomas.edu.