Continuing their season this past weekend, the Colgate golf team took 10th place at the Cornell Invitational, a tournament of 15 schools. The tournament was shortened to 36 holes (two rounds) when persistent rain made it impossible to play the third round. With a score of 590, Binghamton University took first place. Colgate’s score for the weekend was a 621.

In his first round, first-year Will Delano shot a 71, taking first place in the overall standings.

“We are all really impressed with what Delano showed us this weekend,” senior captain David Ake said. “We knew that he had a tremendous amount of talent, but he also showed this weekend that he has the mental game and right attitude to handle the pressure of playing at the front of the pack.”

Sophmore Ben Jessen scored a 77 on his first round, ranking second among Colgate golfers in the opening loop. Following closely behind him, Ake posted a 78. With opening round scores of 81 and 83, respectively, senior Nick Parry and sophomore Josh Spellman rounded out the Colgate team.

On Saturday evening, some of the 79 golfers who competed in the tournament were still on course, finishing their second rounds, when play was suspended due to darkness. Because of their earlier start time, none of the members of the Colgate team were caught up in this delay. Play resumed on Sunday morning.

Will Delano continued to lead the team through the second round, shooting a 75. Delano shot a 146 for the weekend and took fourth place overall. Shooting a 77 in the second round, Parry took 50th place for the weekend and ended the tournament with a total score of 158. Tying Parry with a cumulative score of 158 was Jessen who shot an 81 in his second round.

Only one stroke behind Parry and Jessen, with at final combined score of 159, was Ake whose second round score of 81 earned him 56th place. Josh Spellman equaled his previous round by scoring a second consecutive 83 and moved into 71st place.

“I think the main thing we all need to work on heading in to next week is our ability to deal with adversity,” Ake commented about the weekend. “I think we all have an immense amount of talent, we just need to work on dealing with rounds that do not go exactly as planned, and work on battling back from adversity to ensure overall team success, regardless of your individual situation.”

Coach Keith Tyburski’s comments seemed to echo Ake’s sentiment, as he emphasized the importance of remaining calm when bad shots happen.

“One aspect of my team’s play that I will focus on as we gear up for our next event is damage control,” Tyburski said. “That is to say, limiting the amount of damage incurred by a poor swing or bad break. We have had the tendency to try and hit the ‘perfect shot’ and rescue ourselves from trouble and while it works some of the time, it can potentially result in an even higher score. Instead, we need to play more conservatively, and try and make bogey the worst score we can get on any given hole.”

The Colgate golf team will be back in action in two weeks at the Eastern College Athletic Conference Championships.