On October 31 and November 1, the Colgate men’s golf team traveled to Ca­shiers, North Carolina, to participate in the Hummingbird Intercollegiate Tour­nament. The tournament was hosted by head coach Keith Tyburski’s alma mater Western Carolina University. The Raiders encountered their toughest competition of the season by far and placed last out of 17 teams. Despite Colgate’s overall rough standing relative to the other teams in the tournament, the individual performances of some of the Raiders seemed promising for future competitions.

Up-and-coming first-year Brian Mc­Cormick placed first for the Raiders, and finished the tournament tied for 21st place overall. McCormick fired off a +4 75 on the first day of the tournament, but quickly made the necessary adjustments on the sec­ond day of the tournament with a -1 70.

“College golf is new to me, but I have enough tournament experience that the Hummingbird felt like any other event,” McCormick said.

The constantly improving McCormick tied for third overall in scoring on par- 5’s, shooting a -4 during the tournament. Senior captain Ben Jessen placed second for the Raiders and 71st overall, finishing with a +11 total. Jessen struggled to make a 78 on day one, but followed this unex­pected performance with an improved 75 on day two. First-year Michael Grayson placed third overall for the Raiders, finish­ing just behind Jessen with a +12. Consis­tency was a critical factor in Grayson’s per­formance. He finished the first day of the tournament with a solid 76, and regressed only slightly to a 78 on day two. Grayson also tied for the most pars in the tourna­ment as he tallied 25 over the course of the two rounds. Junior Assistant Captain Will Delano and senior Josh Spellman finished fourth and fifth for the Raiders, placing t- 90th and 92nd overall, respectively. Dela­no struggled on day one with an 83 (+12), but rebounded significantly in his second round with a 77. Spellman demonstrated a trend similar to that of Delano, shoot­ing a first-round 82, followed by a 79 in round two.

Appalachian State University won the tournament with a total of 565 (-3). Uni­versity of Alabama-Birmingham placed second overall in the tournament with a 567 (-1), while Gardner-Webb University rounded out the podium positions with a 573 (+5). The Raiders finished well be­hind the top teams, shooting a 611 (+43) over the course of the two-day tourna­ment. The tournament was the last of the fall season for the Raiders.

“We already started our strength and conditioning program and to stay loose, we’ll have team practices at Turning Stone where we can use their indoor range,” Mc­Cormick said when asked how the team will try to stay in shape.

Contact Matt Flannery at [email protected].