Last weekend in Lewisburg, PA, the Colgate men’s golf team finished their 2016-17 season at the Patriot League men’s Golf Championship, closing out the day with a seventh-place finish. Loyola won for the third time in four years since joining the Patriot League. This victory earns the team an automatic bid to the NCAA torunament, which will take place from May 26 to May 31. Other top five finishers included Army West Point, Bucknell, Navy and Lehigh. Colgate finished the tournament 284-287-299 – 870, a total of 30 strokes above par. They went into Sunday only 11 strokes over par, but struggled to remain consistent on their final day of play.

Colgate’s top players were first-year Alejo Soto and junior Armando Olivieri III, both of whom finished in eighteenth place. Olivieri’s finish was his best placement in three appearances at the Patriot League Championship. He finished the tournament with 37 pars and six birdies, leading the team in scoring on both the par-fours (five over) and the par-fives (three under).

Meanwhile, Soto put his name on the map in his rookie season with his first top 20 finish in a full-field collegiate tournament. Soto carded 35 pars and six birdies, and had one of the nine eagles that took place during the tournament. He played both the par-threes and the par-fives even. Both Soto and Olivieri closed the tournament 6-over-par. The leader of the tournament, Peter Kim from Army West Point, finished the tournament 10-under-par.

First-year Quinn McGinley also shot 74 and finished in twenty-ninth

place after climbing two spots. This is his second best full-field result of the season. Junior Scott Adams shot 77, which placed him at fortieth to close out the Colgate scoring. Adams completed the tournament with 27 pars and seven birdies, and played one under on the par-fives.

 Soto, Olivieri and Adams had their scores from all three rounds of play count towards the Colgate overall score. The team as a whole shot 19-over on Sunday, which brought them to a total 30-over-par 870. First-year Ryan Skae finished in twenty-eighth place, claiming his best finish of this spring season, and led the team with eight birdies along with 31 pars. He played one over on the par-threes and two over on the par-fives. First-year Andrew Huber rounded out the tournament in forty-eighth place, his second best finish of the season. He played 24 pars and three birdies.

“We had a pretty solid first two rounds as a team, but today we didn’t have our best stuff. We know that we can shoot low scores, which is a positive, but we all need a bit more consistency going forward. The Patriot League is getting more competitive each year so it’s going to give us incentive to work on our games this summer,” Soto said.

Now that the team is done for the season, the Raiders will get a bit of time off before getting back to work this summer to prepare for next year in the hopes that they will come out with lower scores and more consistency.