PELLA, Iowa ­— Entering the day in a five-way tie atop the leaderboard at the Central Fall Classic, Knox first-year Thomas Lyaudet remained the last man standing to win medalist honors by three strokes, carding a 1-under 71 today to finish up at 3-under for the tournament. And with each of his teammates improving their scores from the first round, the Prairie Fire climbed from fourth to second in the final team standings (600, +24), trailing only Luther College by 13 strokes in the 12-team field.

After playing the front nine of the Finkbine Golf Course at 1-under par with a pair of birdies, Lyaudet birdied both 10 and 11 to take a six-stroke lead over the field. From there, had made par on five of the last seven holes to safely maintain his lead, even with Grinnell's Roger Smith carding the low round of the tournament — 4-under 68 — to jump 15 spots into second place behind Lyaudet.

Junior Pranav Nandakumar had a bit of a Jekyll-and-Hyde round. He played the front nine at 5-over par, then followed that with four birdies and five pars on the back nine to shoot a 73 (+1) on the day and finish at 3-over, good for a tie for sixth in the 70-player field.

• Sophomore Nathaniel Zug (+4) and junior Gabriel Newman (+5) completed the scoring for the Prairie Fire, giving the team a combined 9-over 297 on the day.
• Lyaudet was one of seven players to score an eagle during the tournament, and he had the fourth-most birdies (7).
• The last Prairie Fire golfer to win a tournament was Nandakumar just over a year ago at the Fighting Scot Invite.

Knox will conclude the fall portion of its season on Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 14-15, with its home invitational at the Soangetaha Country Club.