The Kansas Jayhawks finished in seventh place at the Bill Ross Intercollegiate in Kansas City, Mo., Tuesday. The Jayhawks dropped from fourth place to seventh place in the final round of play.

“Fourth would have been a tolerable finish, but seventh is not,” coach Kit Grove said. “The body language from most of the players was really poor and it was tough to watch as a coach.”

Grove said his biggest goal was to overtake Nebraska, who had a one-stroke lead on Kansas going into the final round of play. That did not happen as the Cornhuskers jumped from third place to second place.

“Hats off to Nebraska for playing as well as they did,” Grove said. “Now we just have to finish ahead of them next week and get back to where they are for the season standings.”

Central Arkansas won the tournament with a total of 880 strokes. Kansas’ total number of strokes was 911.

“It was a disappointing finish for us and it couldn’t have gone any worse,” Grove said.

The individual leader for the tournament was Dustin Garza from Wichita State who shot a three-round total of 211 strokes. The closest Jayhawk to that score was surprisingly not Nate Barbee, Dakota Dunes, S.D., junior. Barbee had led the Jayhawks with the best individual score in every tournament so far this year, but this time it was walk-on Jeff Bell, Wichita freshman who led the Jayhawks in scoring with a total of 225. Right behind Bell was Barbee with 226 strokes.

“Jeff has been a pleasant surprise for us this year,” Grove said. “And not just on the golf course. He’s a great kid and he does well in school and on the course he doesn’t carry the weight of a bad hole with him on to the next one.”

That attitude is one that many golfers would love to have. The ability to forget about bad shots can keep a score low instead of blowing up.

“I’m just lucky when it comes to that aspect of the game,” Bell said. “It comes naturally for me to keep a good attitude on the course.”

Alex Gutesha, Greenwood Village, Colo., finished with a total of 228 strokes right behind Bell and Barbee.

“This tournament could’ve been better for us obviously,” Gutesha said. “We had high expectations and just didn’t come through.”

The lone senior in the Jayhawks five-man rotation, Bryan Hackenberg, Denver, Colo., shot a pair of 77s on Monday and an 80 on Tuesday to finish with a total of total of 234 and rounding out the Jayhawks scores was Chris Gilbert, Simi Valley, Calif., freshman, with a 236.

Kansas will play in its final tournament of the fall season next week in Las Cruces, N.M., in the Herb Wimberly Intercollegiate on Oct. 26 and 27.

Gutesha said all the players know what they need to do in the next tournament. “We don’t have too many issues with our games, it’s just a mental thing,” Gutesha said. “We all just need to take something away from this tournament and learn from it and it will benefit us in the future.”

Grove said his team will be looking to improve on the seventh place finish.

“We have some work to get done before we leave on Saturday, but we go into every tournament looking to win and that’s exactly what we’re going to try to do,” Grove said.

— Edited by Betsy Cutcliff