The Northern Illinois University men’s golf team wrapped up the Mason Rudolph Championship on Sunday, hosted by Vanderbilt at Vanderbilt Legends Club, in 11th place.

The tournament field included three teams in the Bushnell/GolfWeek Top 25 Coaches Poll in #3 Vanderbilt, #5 Ole Miss, and #9 Alabama along with seven other programs ranked in the top 100 of the Scoreboard rankings.

“It was great to compete against a strong field of SEC and Big 12 teams,” said head coach John Carlson. “The Mason Rudolph Championship is one of the top tournaments in the country. It gives our guys another glimpse of the high level of play that the NCAA Regionals are like. Our last two tournament have been at Auburn, top-three in the nation on its home golf course, then Vanderbilt, also top-three on its home course.”

The Huskies posted their lowest team round of the weekend in Friday’s opening round with a nine-over par 293. Junior Ben Sluzas (Lockport, Ill./Lockport) carded the lowest round of the weekend for an NIU golfer with an even par 71. Zach Place (Roselle, Ill./Lake Park) had a round of two-over 73. Felix Krammer (Waakirchen, Germany/Arkansas State) carded a  74 and Ian Bruchhauser (Temecula, Calif./Great Oak) rounded out the scoring group with a 75.

Sluzas was NIU’s top finisher on the weekend, tying for 33rd with a 54-hole score six-over par 219. Krammer and Place both tied for 51st with equal scores of 10-over par 223.

“Ben and Zach are leaders of our team and they have the competitive confidence that comes from winning a Mid-American Conference championship together,” Carlson said. “You add Felix to that mix and we’ll go as far as they can take us.”

NIU finished with a 54-hole team score of 34-over par 886. The Huskies were seven strokes behind 10th-place Cincinnati, and seven strokes ahead of 12th-place South Alabama. Vanderbilt won the event by 18 shots over Ole Miss.

The Huskies return to action April 13-14 at the Hawkeye Invitational, hosted by Iowa at Finkbine Golf Course.