Zach Ward had the top scoring average for the Mustangs men’s golf team during the 2015-16 campaign.

A total of just 10 strokes over 18 competitive tournament rounds separated the top three players on the Morningside College men’s golf team over the 2015-16 season.

Zach Ward, a sophomore from Waterloo, Iowa, led the Mustangs with a 76.3-stroke scoring average with 1373 strokes in 18 rounds. Ferran Cortilla, a freshman from Barcelona, Spain, was next with 1378 strokes and a 76.6 average, followed by Cody Holck, a freshman from Ankeny, Iowa, with 1383 strokes and a 76.8 average.

Ward ranked second on the team with a 76.5-stroke scoring average during the fall season and led the Mustangs with a 76.0 average in the spring campaign. Ward had the Mustangs’ top individual score during the fall season with a two-under par 70 to lead the Mustangs to the team championship at the Morningside Invitational on Sept. 21 at Whispering Creek Golf Club.

Holck led the Mustangs with a 76.3 scoring average in the fall and was third on the team with a 77.5 average in the spring. His top two scores of the year came during the spring campaign with 73s at the Northwestern Invitational on April 7 and GPAC Qualifier #4 on May 9.

Cortilla had the Mustangs’ second lowest scoring average in both the fall and spring seasons with averages of 76.5 in the fall and 76.6 in the spring. He had the Mustangs’ top individual score of the season with a three-under par 68 to lead all players in the first round of the Keiser University Invitational at the North Course at the Fountains Country Club in Lake Worth, Fla. Cortilla was the individual medalist with an even par 70 in GPAC Qualifier #4 held at Two Rivers Golf Club in North Sioux City, S.D., and with a three-over par 74 in GPAC Qualifier #3 held at Firethorn Golf Club in Lincoln, Neb.

Ben Schwaderer, a sophomore from Sioux City, and Ben Peterson, a freshman from Saint Antony, Minn., finished with averages of just over 80 with scoring norms of 80.6 and 80.9 strokes, respectively, followed by John Burns, a sophomore from Algona, Iowa, with an average of 81.0.

The Mustangs won two tournament titles with victories at the Morningside Invitational on Sept. 21 and GPAC Qualifier #3 on April 11. Morningside was the runner-up at four tournaments, including the Mount Marty College Fall Invite, where it finished just one stroke out of first, and the Hastings College Invitational and GPAC Qualifier #4, where it finished just two strokes back. Morningside finished fourth in the final GPAC standings from the four GPAC Qualifier tourneys. The Mustangs climbed five spots in the conference standings from the previous season following a ninth place showing in 2014-15.