Seniors Jason Bannister and Sam Vertanen named to OVC All-Tournament Team
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – University of Southern Indiana Men’s Golf finished sixth at the Ohio Valley Conference Championship at Dalhousie Golf Club in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The Screaming Eagles shot an 875 (299, 283, 293) and were just five strokes shy of advancing to the match-play round on Wednesday.
Out of an 11-team field, USI entered Tuesday’s final round of stroke play tied for fifth but needing to make up at least 10 strokes to potentially move into the top four to go on to the match-play round. By the end of Tuesday’s last 18 holes, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, which had the best team score in stroke play with a 17-under 847, Lindenwood University, the University of Tennessee at Martin, and Morehead State University were the top four programs to advance into Wednesday’s match-play bracket.
Senior Jason Bannister topped USI with a five-under 211 (69, 70, 72) to finish third on the player leaderboard and one stroke behind the two leaders from UT Martin and Little Rock. Fellow senior Sam Vertanen made a big move up the leaderboard on Tuesday to finish tied for fourth with four-under 212 (73, 71, 68). Bannister and Vertanen, who were respectively named All-OVC First Team and All-OVC Second Team last week, earned OVC All-Tournament Team honors on Tuesday. Junior Carter Goebel recorded a top-25 finish after posting a three-over 219 (75, 67, 77).
The first round saw Southern Indiana position itself in sixth with an 11-over 299, while Little Rock was the pace-setter with a six-under 282 at the top of the team leaderboard. Bannister led the first-round scoring for USI with a three-under 69, which put Bannister into a tie for second on the player leaderboard after 18 holes. The senior carded five birdies in round one. Goebel also notched five birdies in the first round, all coming on the first nine, but ran into some adversity on the second nine.
On day two, Goebel bounced back from Sunday’s back nine to log a bogey-free round on Monday with a five-under 67, one stroke shy of his career-best low round that he scored earlier this year. After registering a pair of birdies on the front side, Goebel went on a stretch of eight consecutive pars before birdieing three of the last four holes. After an early blemish, Bannister recovered to grab five birdies in the second round and also birdied three of the final four holes to post in red numbers for the second day in a row. Vertanen remained steady on the first eight holes and even eagled the sixth hole. Vertanen parred or better in eight of the back nine holes to also shoot below par in round two. With the utilization of the substitution rule, senior Wade Worthington stepped into the lineup on Monday to shoot a 75 to round out USI’s best team round of the tournament.
The third round featured a hot start by Vertanen, who started with a par before birdieing three holes in a row. Vertanen kept the scorecard clean, including two more birdies on the back side, before his only setback on the 17th hole. Regardless, Vertanen carded a four-under 68, matching his lowest round of 2024-25. Bannister had a solid start Tuesday with four pars and two birdies in the first six holes, but he shot even par for the round. Worthington gave USI another solid effort with 76 in round three. Goebel had a slow start with some more adversity on the front nine, but he managed to level out the rest of the third round. Low scoring seemed hard to come by on the back nine as it did in round one and in contrast to round two for the Screaming Eagles. However, USI could not gain enough scoring strokes after 54 holes to advance past the stroke-play portion of the OVC Championship.
For Worthington, Vertanen, and Bannister, the three seniors had their USI careers come to a close on Tuesday.
Worthington started his collegiate career at John A. Logan College, where he was a NJCAA national qualifier in 2023, and came back home to Evansville, Indiana, to USI in 2023-24. Worthington played in six events in 2024-25, totaling 16 rounds, and averaged a 77.50 per round.
Vertanen also started his college career elsewhere at Des Moines Area Community College before transferring to USI ahead of 2023-24. Vertanen made his way onto the USI record charts last year but was even better in 2024-25. Vertanen shot a career-best 208 this year to place himself among the top two for best 54-hole score in Screaming Eagles history. Vertanen averaged 72.39 strokes per round, which is nearly a two-stroke improvement from last year, to rank third in USI’s single-season history with a minimum of 10 total rounds played. Vertanen’s career average of 73.15 per round is second in Southern Indiana’s all-time history with a minimum of 40 rounds played. Vertanen ended the 2024-25 season with an OVC Male Golfer of the Week honor before receiving his All-OVC Second Team and OVC All-Tournament Team accolades.
Bannister concludes his four-year career at USI as arguably the best male golfer in school history to date. Bannister began his career with Great Lakes Valley Conference all-conference laurels in 2021-22. Then he quickly transitioned to the OVC as an all-tournament team recipient as well as a two-time OVC Golfer of the Week in 2022-23. He was named OVC Golfer of the Month in 2022-23, 2023-24, and again this year in 2024-25. Bannister was named to the All-OVC team last year and picked up all-conference honors again this year. Bannister is tied for second in USI history with a career-low round of 65, owns the best 36-hole mark of 138 that he scored this year, and is tied for second with a 54-hole best 208. Bannister possesses the top two best single-season round averages in the USI record books with a 70.90 in 2024-25 and a 71.96 in 2023-24. Plus, Bannister set a new Southern Indiana all-time mark with a career average of 72.50 strokes per round after competing in 43 total events and playing 115 total rounds.
Next, the Screaming Eagles will look ahead to 2025-26 and continue to work and build on their forward momentum within the program.
