The Colby golf team finished in sixth place this weekend at the annual New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Golf Championship Qualifier two-day tournament this past weekend. The tournament was held at Shuttle Meadow Country Club where the Trinity College Bantams, the defending champions, play their home matches.
Colby’s top five players, making up the scoring team at the tournament, posted a combined mark of 625 strokes on the weekend. The Mules began the weekend with a 314 score on Saturday and improved on that total with a 311 on Sunday. The top four teams at the qualifier, who will go on to play at the championship tournament in the spring, were Middlebury (scoring a tournament-low 585), Williams (597), Amherst (598) and Trinity (609). Middlebury played to a tie with Williams on the first day with shared scores of 295, but the Panthers topped that total with 290 strokes on Sunday to bring home first place.
Individually, Colby’s golfers performed very consistently as they have all season. Taggert Martin ’13 led the Mules, shooting a 75 on Saturday and a 77 on Sunday for a total of 152 strokes. Martin was followed by Tripp Huber ’13 (79, 77, 156), Harry Smith ’12 (80, 76, 156), Thomas Lampert ’12 (84, 80, 164) and Nate Ellis ’14 (85, 81, 166). Coach Jim Tortorella was pleased with the team’s individual performances, praising their improvement from day one to day two. Martin, Huber and Smith all finished inside the top 20 performers in the qualifier, something that Tortorella considers particularly impressive considering the strength of the competition and the circumstances. “This tournament was two days of really competitive golf and these guys played real well,” he said after the tournament.
Colby’s team was one of the youngest in the tournament, as has been the case often this season. With that youth comes a relative lack of experience that can hurt the team in playoff scenarios. “Some of our guys aren’t familiar with this course, which is definitely a challenge. Our youth is a strength and a weakness,” Coach Tortorella said.
With all the starters from this year’s squad set to return next year, those following Colby golf can expect improved performance and consistency going forward. The team possesses tremendous upside and potential, but because the team did not place high enough to qualify for the championship in the spring, the 2010 golf season has come to a close.
There is reason for optimism, however; Mule golf figures to be a powerhouse in the years to come.