The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks’ mixed varsity golf team had an eventful weekend at both the Western Invitational and the Brock Invitational, with the men’s team scoring a third place win at Western and then a second place finish at Brock. The women’s side finished fifth in the Western tournament and improved to a fourth place finish during the rounds at Brock.
The men’s side finished just being Guelph and Western during the Western invitational on Thursday, Sept. 19, with a team combined score of 315, just 16 points shy of Guelph’s 299 finish. Henry Luel had the best average on the Laurier side, with a seventh-place tie finish with77.
On Sunday, Sept. 22, Laurier had a higher finish improving their team score to 314, just one point behind the first-place Western team that scored 313. Jaron Brown, a fourth-year veteran to the team, helped the team with a third-place individual finish of 76.
“We have a mixed team this year; we have five rookies on the team, first year with the team, and then five players who have been with me for up to five years. My experienced players have really stepped up this year–they’ve worked hard competed over the summer time, some of them played in Canadian amateur and Ontario amateur; I think those experiences have helped them and they’ve started the year off with a good start,” said head coach Jeff Colley in regards to the men’s team.
The women’s team ended with a fifth-place finish in the Western invitational with a score of 282, with Sam Zulian having the team best score of 92. The women improved their placement on Sunday as well, finishing fourth with a score of 262, with both Jamie Elsey and Sam Zulian tying for the eleventh-place finish with a score of 87 each.
“They’re young and building their confidence still, we’re looking to gain more experience in that tournament setting. I think they’ll be just fine. I think they can compete for a spot at nationals; to get to nationals you have to finish top five at OUAs and then they qualify for a spot, that’s definitely our goal,” Colley said.
“There are a couple women’s programs that are very strong; Windsor has a really strong women’s program and so does Waterloo, but I think that we can put a team out there that is going to compete for the OUA championship.”
The two teams will participate in the McMaster invitational, Waterloo invitational and the Guelph invitational in the next week before OUA championships begin on Sunday, Oct. 6 in Markham at Angus Glen Golf Club.
“Ultimately, the goal this year is for sure to win, I know my players and myself would be disappointed if we didn’t either win at OUA’s or get top three, and I definitely think we would be a strong candidate to compete for a national title for sure,” Colley said.
“Up next, we’re looking forward to our event that’s this upcoming weekend, Saturday and Sunday at Rebel Creek Golf Club.”
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