Pellissippi State’s Disc Golf players kicked off their spring 2024 season with first-place finishes in both the singles and team events of their home tournament.
Pellissippi State hosted The Smokie Showdown, the only Appalachian Conference event, on the college’s Hardin Valley Campus on Saturday, Feb. 3. Players from Johnson University, Middle Tennessee State University, Milligan University, the University of Kentucky and the University of Missouri competed in this tournament sanctioned by the Professional Disc Golf Association.
Jacob Teffeteller of Pellissippi State won the singles event and landed a hole in one. The four-player Pellissippi State team – Teffeteller, Chris Berney, Derek Rucker and Grady Williams – were tied for the top spot going into the team round and ended the round tied with a four-player team from Milligan University.
Teffeteller secured the team win for Pellissippi State by sinking the putt on the first hole of the sudden death play-off. He is ranked 19th nationally in the College Disc Golf Top 20 Men’s Individual Power Rankings.
“This is a really good group,” said Coach Leslie Adamczyk, an associate professor of Chemistry at Pellissippi State. “They’ve matured as players and work well together.”
Teffeteller, Berney, Rucker and Williams played for Pellissippi State last spring and made it to the College Disc Golf National Championship in 2023. They competed in Division 2, the second highest division, and finished 23rd of 51 teams.
The four returning players are joined this spring by a fifth player, Ian Smith, who also performed well in the singles round of The Smokie Showdown, Adamczyk said. He will sub for any of the other four players who cannot travel to upcoming tournaments.
Next up for the Disc Golf team are the Bluegrass Regional in Lexington, Kentucky, Feb. 24-25 and the Liberty University Flamethrower in Lynchburg, Virginia, March 16-17. Pellissippi State will try to get a bid to the 2024 Nationals at these two regional events.
(The Smokie Showdown, a conference event, is not a qualifier for Nationals.)
The 2024 National Championship will be held April 3-6 in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
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