HAMMOND, La. – The Southeastern Louisiana men's golf team's goal for the 54^th Southland Conference Championships this week is simple – to finish one spot ahead of where it ended in 2016.

    The Lions took the lead after the first round of the 2016 Championships before finishing second by seven shots behind McNeese with a team score of 884. Now coming off consecutive second-place finishes at the Jim West Intercollegiate and LSU Tiger Classic, Southeastern will be looking for its first conference title since 2013 and its fifth overall.

    "We want to improve one spot from last year," Southeastern head coach Jake Narro said. "We were the runners-up. We're coming off two runners-up this season and we're playing good so it's all about controlling our emotions and things of that nature at this point. Physically, we are there."

    The three-day, 54-hole tournament gets underway Monday at the par-72, 7,346-yard Dye Course at Stonebridge Ranch Country Club in McKinney, Texas. The tournament continues Tuesday and concludes on Wednesday with tee times starting at 7:30 a.m. each day. Live stats, provided by the Southland, will be accessible on the Southeastern men's golf schedule page at www.LionSports.net.

    The winner of the conference championships receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals. The individual medalist also receives an automatic bid.

    Southeastern is seeded fourth behind McNeese, Stephen F. Austin and Central Arkansas. The Lions have not placed lower than third since 2012 with a pair of second-place finishes and a third in addition to the 2013 title over that stretch. Southeastern also won Southland Conference titles in 1998, '00 and '10.

    Seniors Paul Obermann and James Anstiss, sophomores William Meyers and Joris Etlin and senior Gustavo Leon are slated to tee off for the Lions between 9 and 9:36 a.m.

    Obermann, the sixth-ranked individual, will be playing in his fourth conference tournament, tying for 15^th as a freshman and for 39^th in 2015. Last year, he climbed 10 spots in the final round with a 1-over-par 73 to tie for 18^th at 10-over 226.

    Anstiss, with three top-10 finishes this spring, comes in as the eighth-seeded player. He tied for second at the 2016 Championships at even-par 216, finishing seven strokes behind McNeese's Martin Eriksson. He was tied for the first-round lead at 4-under 68 before recording the highest finish by a Lion at the conference tournament since Rhys West won in 2013. He also tied for 28^th in 2015.

    Narro said he will be counting on those two seniors to advise the squad's younger players.

    "They can talk about the course and that nature but what I hope they can tell them is to keep doing what you've been doing," Narro said. "Because as you can see from our last couple of results, when we play well, we can beat a lot of people, a lot of highly-ranked people. When you can just be yourself, we get the results we want. When you try to do a little extra 10 percent is when we back up."
 
    Meyers, the 13^th seed, returns to the tournament after finishing in a tie for 28^th last year at 12-over 288. Etlin and Leon are making their tournament debuts as the 41^st and 43^rd seeds, respectively.

    Narro said those two final spots could play a key role this week.

    "Joris has settled into his role," Narro said. "Gustavo had an injury at the beginning of the semester and his back is better which means he can practice more and it's showing. And obviously when you're playing good, you have confidence."