INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Webster University men's golf team closes out the fall season ranked 20th in the second edition of the Golfstat.com Division III team rankings for the 2019-20 season that were released on Thursday afternoon by Golfstat.
 
The No. 20 ranking is now the highest in the Golfstat.com rankings in school history for the Gorloks as the previous highest ranking was No. 21 in Golfstat's first rankings of this season that were released in mid-October.
 
"What a tremendous way to be rewarded for our start this season - to be ranked in the Top 20 of the Division III Golfstat rankings for the first time in school history," Webster coach Andrew Belsky said. "We have gotten off to a great start and I'm hoping we can continue our outstanding play this spring and continue to make program history."
 
In the latest edition of the Golfstat.com Division III rankings, Webster has an adjusted scoring average of 74.31 and an average drop score of 80.65. In addition, the Gorloks have a 77.30 strength of schedule and are one of 14 teams ranked in the Top 20 that have at least one event win this season as Webster took home the team title at the season opening Culver's Edgewood College Fall Classic as they shot a 13-over 581 for 36 to win the event for the third straight year.

In addition to winning the title at the Culver's Edgewood Fall Classic, Webster also placed second at the both the Carthage Tim Kopka Memorial Tournament and the Rhodes Fall Classic and had a third place finish at the Tempest Intercollegiate on Oct. 7-8. In fact, the Gorloks placed in the Top 5 in all five of its fall events. 

The Gorloks completed the fall season with a team scoring average of 295.25, which is nearly five strokes lower than the single-season record of 299.87 that was set by last season's team. 

In addition to being ranked 20th in the Golfstat.com Division III rankings, the Gorloks received 23 votes in the latest Bushnell Golfweek Division III Coaches Poll that was released by the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) on Oct. 18.

Junior Will Hocker (Grapevine, Texas/University of Oklahoma) recorded Top 10 finishes in all five of the fall events, including taking home medalist honors at the Culver's Edgewood College Fall Classic to put him at No. 8 in the nation in Golfstat's Division III player rankings. On the season, Hocker holds a 71.17 scoring average and is 428-15 overall on the season and has had a team-best six rounds of par or better golf, including a school record low round of 63 (-8) in the second round of the Tim Kopka Memorial Tournament. 
 
Along with Hocker, three other Gorloks have recorded a scoring average of over 75.50 during the fall season as senior Zac Ciesla (Lake Charles, La./Alfred M. Barbe) had a scoring average of 73.80 as he had three rounds of par or better and took home one Top 10 finish, which was tying for medalist honors at the Carthage Tim Kopka Memorial Tournament, while junior Mitchell Vetter (Colleyville, Texas/Grapevine) posted a 75.17 scoring average and had one Top 5 finish, which was a third place finish at the Culver's Edgewood College Fall Classic and senior Cole Pickett(Greenville, Ill./Keiser University) had a scoring average of 75.25 during the fall and posted two Top 5 finishes, including winning medalist honors at the Country Club Classic hosted by Millikin University and recorded two rounds of par or better golf.

With the completion of the fall season, Webster will now await the beginning of the spring campaign which will begin on March 1-3, 2020 as the Gorloks will compete at the Las Vegas Desert Classic hosted by UMSL and held at Royal Links Golf Club in Las Vegas, Nev.