COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Fighting Illini men's golf team closed out the regular season with an impressive finish to defend its team title at the Robert Kepler Intercollegiate at Columbus Country Club on Sunday. The Illini came into the day with a seven-stroke advantage, and once again carded the lowest team score of the round to run away with the championship by 13 shots.

The win secures the No. 20-ranked Illini's third team title for the 2021-22 season, and gives the Orange and Blue key wins in back-to-back tournaments – coming off of the victory at the Boilermaker Invitational in their last outing – as the squad now turns its attention to the championship season.  

"I was very happy and impressed with the way that the guys came out of the blocks today," head coach Mike Small said. "When you play a team on their home course like that, they are very familiar with it, and the longer they stay around, the closer it is; it can become anybody's tournament. So, to come out and play like we did the first nine holes was inspiring to watch. It was great. We didn't close the way we normally would like to close out the last six holes, but we had built such a big lead that it didn't matter."

All five members of the Illini's scoring lineup finished inside the top eight over the weekend, led by the senior duo of Adrien Dumont de Chassart and Tommy Kuhl who  tied for third at 8-under. Dumont de Chassart followed rounds of 70 and 67 on Saturday with a closing 71 on Sunday. Kuhl tied for the team lead with a 3-under 69 on Sunday after posting scores of 69 and 70 in Rounds 1 and 2, respectively.   

"That's huge," Small said of the seniors leading the team effort. "They (Adrien and Tommy) have played a lot of golf for Illinois. They've played at the highest level, in the NCAA match play championship with the final eight teams, so they have that experience. On a golf team, you need all five guys, but to have your veterans show up and play that way was a big deal. Piercen (Hunt) also came out today and played strong early, and so did Jerry (Ji). We just have to sustain it for an entire round and we'll have something special."

Hunt matched Kuhl with a team-best 69 (-3) in Round 3, and was the biggest mover of the day for the Illini, ascending 10 spots from a tie for 16^th in a share of sixth place in the 81-player field. Ji closed out the Round 3 scoring for the Illini with an even-par 72, moving up two spots into a tie for eighth. His 54-hole total of 212 (-4) matched that of freshman Jackson Buchanan, who tied his career-best from earlier this season at Arizona's N.I.T. in mid-March.

Junior Nico Lang, playing as an individual competitor, also improved on Sunday, moving up 19 spots with a 2-under 70 in his final round.

As a team, the Illini finished 13 strokes ahead of runner-up and No. 35-ranked Ohio State (-17), and 21 shots in front of No. 47 Northwestern (-9) in third. Penn State rounded out the top five in the team standings in a tie with Kent State at 7-under. The Golden Flashes were the only non-Big Ten team to finish in the top nine, followed by Indiana (-5) in sixth, No. 37 Michigan State (+5) in seventh, Rutgers (+8) in eighth, and Michigan (+14) in ninth.

UP NEXT
The Fighting Illini tee off April 29-May 1 at The Pete Dye Course in French Lick, Ind., for the 2022 Big Ten Men's Golf Championship. The Orange and Blue are in search of their seventh-consecutive conference title, their 12th in the last 13 league championships dating back to the 2008-09 season, and the 19th in program history.

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