The Colgate golf team continued its season this past weekend, taking seventh place at the Bucknell Invitational. Competing against 13 other teams, Colgate earned a team score of 896. Bucknell, scored an 865 for the weekend, winning their home tournament for the fifth time in seven years.

Josh Spellman scored a 75 to lead Colgate through the first round. Behind him were sophomore Ben Jessen, senior Nick Parry and senior captain David Ake, all scoring a 77, as they took their first trip around this extremely challenging course. With a 78, first-year Will Delano began his first tournament with the Raiders and showed his great talent throughout the weekend. In the first round, junior Neil Thompson shot a 79. As a team, the golfers combined for a first round score of 306 and found themselves in 12th place.

“I am happy with how the team stayed resilient after a very rough first round, and we managed to improve our team’s standing each round,” Ake said after the tournament.

Indeed, during the second round, the team lowered their overall score to 295, a significant improvement. The lowest score in the second round was Delano’s 72, a dramatic improvement from his first round score and a notable achievement in his first intercollegiate tournament. Sophomore Josh Spellman scored a 73, which, along with Jessen’s 74 in the second round, continued to raise Colgate’s position in the overall standings. Parry and Ake continued to score together, each with a 76 in their second round.

Ending the weekend’s competition with a strong third round, Jessen shot a 71. This gave him a weekend score of 222 and earned him 17th place, ranking him highest among Colgate golfers. Taking 23rd place, Delano concluded his weekend with a third round score of 74 and a combined score of 224. Spellman’s 77 gave him 27th place and Parry took 31st place overall with a third round score of 73. Scoring a 74 in his third round and placing 46th overall, Ake earned a total score of 231 for the weekend. Thompson placed 64th and had a tournament total of 241. Moving into seventh place, the team shot a 295 for the third round to conclude the weekend’s competition.

“While there were some positives from this weekend I think we are generally pretty unhappy with our performance,” Ake remarked on his team’s finish. “There were opportunities for us to score better and I believe we are going to make the adjustments to ensure that we do not miss those opportunities again in the coming weeks.”

Ake also commented on Delano’s debut. “He handled the pressure of his first tournament very well, and played very well at a course that is often very difficult to get a handle on the first few times you play it,”Ake said.

The Colgate golf team will be in action this weekend when they participate in the Cornell Invitational.